《Gunboat》 Chapter 1. Jump Point. Chapter 1. Jump Point. ¡°Warning! Jump point activation detected. A single vessel is attempting to jump into the system from jump point 2. All crew to their stations!¡± Throughout the dark and battered station, the announcement repeated. A loud claxon sounded and flashing red emergency lighting flickered to life in about half the compartments, beckoning to a crew that no longer existed. After the fifteenth announcement, the lack of response was noted, and automated systems began to take over, following long established protocol. Sapient crew has not responded to the warning order. Error. Internal station sensors are degraded. Attempting to locate existing crew. Scanning¡­ No active crew IDs found. Scanning for any lifeforms that may function as sapient crew. Scanning¡­ Over 282 lifeforms were discovered aboard the station, none possess the minimum intellect to act as interim crew. Council AI, version 12, will now be activated. Complete system control is granted to Council AI, version 12. An immediate course of action has been ordered. Shut down of jump point 2 deemed necessary. Submitting request to the jump point control station monitoring jump point 2. Error. The jump point control station is not responding, unable to prevent the pending jump. Updated sensor returns indicate that 3.234489 seconds ago, the jump point activated, admitting a single vessel into system. Flickering returns from the degraded and neglected sensor network in the system began to come in as the AI awakened from its digital slumber. The AI analyzed the sensor returns, piecing together a course of action as it sifted through hundreds of options. Most of these options were deemed ineffective due to infrastructure errors and system degradation. Activating defense grid. All sensor buoys are going active. The solar system had once been strewn with tens of thousands of sensor buoys of various types. Now, the AI could only receive returns from a small fraction of them. Over the next two seconds, it tried to troubleshoot the issue, moving thought 42,921 potential fixes, all of which failed to help. Only a few of the remaining active sensors were close to jump point 2, and many of those also failed after a short period of functionality. The AI reviewed its primary purpose. It was to support the Council through investigation into void disruption, and research ways to defeat any void forces that transitioned into the system. In order to defend itself against void disruptions, a combat vessel with an experimental power source based on Derelict technology remained docked at the main research station. A query to the ship¡¯s computers found they were online, though it only had power through its umbilical link to the station. Only the point defense weapons had been installed in the vessel and its power core was inactive and needed a sapient mind within the proper parameters to control it. The AI¡¯s investigation into the combat vessel was interrupted as new data was received on the interloper that had entered the system. Unidentified contact¡¯s IFF is not transmitting. Error. Sensor network degradation prevents identification of the unknown vessel with any degree of certainty. Analyzing available data. The drive signature of the unknown vessel matches M33p-0 class light cargo transport. Data on the existing number of vessels of this type is 222.648 years out of date, analyzing database to determine threat level. M33p-0 class light, jump-capable transport. Manufacturer: Various. Construction species: Kobold. Some models were built under license by other Council species. Date of manufacture: Unknown. Number of vessels completed: Unknown. Armaments: Unknown. One point defense hardpoint is standard on vessels of this type and additional modular consumable weapons systems can be easily retrofitted. Armor: Negligible, commercial grade hull. Shields: Standard, commercial grade. The shielding on this vessel is only space debris capable and unable to protect against weapons fire. Sensor Array: Limited full-spectrum array with commercial targeting package. Crew: Average crew capacity for this class of vessel is 47. Limited autonomous control. The AI reviewed its findings, noting that the unknown vessel had started scanning the system with an inferior sensor array. For now, the AI would activate stealth field generators and conceal the facilities in this system while it obtained more data and started automated maintenance procedures to bring its facilities back to optimal working order. Error, stealth field generators are offline at both jump point control stations. Error, stealth field generators are offline at the orbital research station. Without the means to hide its facilities in the system, the AI was at a disadvantage. The AI controlled three stations in this system. A small defensive station covered jump point 2. When fully functional, the stations disruption array could block jump transit, and it carried a weapons suite to protect itself from anything other than a dedicated warship. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The main research station, designated Alpha 712, where the AI was physically housed, orbited the second of the three planets in the system. This main research station was part fortress, part science facility, and part shipyard. Presently, only the single, experimental vessel was docked at the research base. All other docking bays were empty and not even an emergency shuttle or emergency evacuation pod remained on the station. Data on the past evacuation was unavailable and all other notations on the disposition of the previous crew were housed in damaged storage devices. Knowing why the crew abandoned the stations wasn¡¯t going to help the AI accomplish its mission. Instead, it focused its efforts on the task at hand. A station similar to the one at jump point two was covering the only other jump point in the system, jump point one. The station at jump point one was used to monitor system Ax77. An advanced capability probe had been sent into Ax77 and was still sending back data on the low-tech civilization found there. A rudimentary targeting system has locked onto jump point station 2. Analyzing options. Warning! System defenses have degraded significantly since last activation. Combat is not recommended, investigating alternative options. Station 2 is being hailed. Connecting to the communications system at jump point station 2. Error, primary comms array is inoperable at this station, switching to backup. A reptilian face appeared on the comms array. The AI¡¯s database tagged it as a kobold, and the AI reviewed whatever limited information it had on the species. Insight into the kobold species was downloaded in a subfolder while the AI waited for the kobold to speak. ¡°I¡¯m Captain Igboz of the powerful and deadly vessel Skitter. My sensors might not be cutting edge, but even they can tell that you are defenseless. Power down everything but life support and unlock your docking hatches. We¡¯ll be taking any valuables and tech you might have, and if you want us to leave the life support on when we leave, you better not give us any trouble,¡± Captain Igboz offered. The AI created a false avatar to project through its communication array. It determined that an orc admiral was the most likely form to intimidate the crew of a kobold vessel. An image and voice profile from the database were selected, and the AI attempted contact with the unknown vessel. ¡°Attention recently arrived vessel. You have jumped into a Council controlled system. Turn about immediately and jump out of this system,¡± the AI demanded through its avatar. The message was sent from every functional transmitter, and despite the network¡¯s degradation, the AI calculated a 98.2% chance that the message was received by the targeted recipient. Less than a minute after transmitting the message, the unknown vessel responded. ¡°What kind of orc pretends to be part of the Council. Ha, humans wiped them out centuries ago. How long have you been cut off out here, and who¡¯s really in charge of this junk heap of a system? I¡¯m done messing around, so answer quickly,¡± Captain Igboz replied. Sifting through old data logs, the AI confirmed that the last contact from the council was over 200 years ago. Before the AI could formulate the optimal response to the kobold captain, it started to receive reports from jump point station 2. A point defense laser was burning into the station¡¯s hull. Shields, along with most other systems on the station, were inoperable. In a short time, the station was dead. All processing nodes, power, and integrated systems had been destroyed by the kobold vessel. The Skitter proceeded to light its drives and set a course for the main research station. With the vessel proven hostile, the AI cycled through existing weapons systems, eventually finding one, a remote operated missile platform near the now-destroyed station at jump point 2. The platform was still receiving commands and had a single ship-to-ship missile that was reporting as functional. The defense platform¡¯s limited power system sputtered to life, and its backup tracking system locked onto the Skitter. At the AI¡¯s command, the missile fired, its targeting lock on the kobold vessel was solid. Sensor returns showed that while the missile was tracking its target, the thrust profile was weaker than expected. A quick series of calculations showed the missile would still have enough fuel to hit the hostile vessel, even when factoring in evasive maneuvers. Slower than the AI would have expected, the kobold ship began to fire its point defense laser, trying to intercept the incoming missile. Its systems might have been degraded, but the AI had no trouble assuming manual control of the missile and began evasive maneuvers. Seven seconds later, the missile hit its target. The AI waited for sensor returns to clarify the picture after the detonation. The Skitter was still intact, though its drives were offline, and its reactor signature was indicating an imminent catastrophic meltdown. Warning! Incoming missiles detected. Point defenses are offline. ¡°You may have killed my ship, orc, but I¡¯m going to return the favor. I bet you thought a single point defense laser was all I had to work with,¡± Captain Igboz taunted as a pair of missiles accelerated toward the main research station. The kobold captain laughed at the orc avatar the AI created, but the communication was cut off a moment later when the kobold ship¡¯s reactor went critical. The AI tried, and failed, to activate any point defense systems on the main station. It also tried to link into the point defense weapons installed on the experimental vessel, but those were also showing as inoperable. A quick calculation showed that automated repairs would take far too long, and the incoming missiles would hit long before a point defense weapon could be brought online. The maintenance situation was disgraceful, and a subroutine admonished the AI for allowing the lapse to occur. Briefly, the AI tried to calculate if it was to blame for the degradation the system had experienced. No, the abandonment by the biological units aboard, and the failure of the internal systems to activate the AI sooner was the true culprit. Calculated damage to main research station after missile impact is estimated at 83%. Recommend abandonment of the station before missile impact occurs. The AI reviewed the data, the warning was correct, the kobold missiles, while not particularly powerful, were more than enough to doom the already degraded station. Only one option remained, the AI had to abandon the station using the docked vessel. A quick check of the ship¡¯s internal data processors revealed that only a single unit had been installed in the incomplete vessel and that unit was insufficient to download the AI completely. Instead, it would have to create a Limited Adjunct Network Interface in the vessel¡¯s database. The adjunct form would allow the AI to retain some semblance of its current capabilities, though memory would be further damaged by the rapid transfer and installation of all necessary data. There was a 71.45% chance that it could rebuild its damaged memory cores and fulfill its purpose, but that chance went to 0% if it could not escape the coming destruction. For its plan to work, the AI needed to power the docked vessel. The only way to do so was to search for a sapient intellect to install in its experimental core. As it installed itself in the ship¡¯s database, the AI activated automated systems to complete the ship¡¯s core creation. No sapient life existed in this solar system, but through the link to system Ax77 at jump point 1, the AI was certain it would find a viable candidate. All parameters for the candidate selection were loaded into the station controls. The AI would be inactive for a time, and it would fall on the more primitive station computers to handle the task. As it was downloaded into the experimental vessel¡¯s systems, the AI observed the process of selecting a candidate. Error, system Ax77 is currently ineligible for Council induction, its technological level is below the minimum threshold. System Ax77 is now granted an emergency exception. The system will allow one designated core candidate, with subsequent support personnel, to be extracted from this world. All other communication and integration of this system will be blocked until Ax77 exceeds the Minimum Technological Threshold (MTT) necessary for induction. Searching for viable candidates with the least disruption on planetary development¡­ Chapter 2. Recruitment. Chapter 2. Recruitment. ¡°Unidentified vessel, heave to and prepare to be boarded,¡± Captain Watkins ordered over the loudspeakers. The vessel next to the Protector Class Coast Guard Cutter Barracuda, was a fast luxury boat that had started its life as some rich persons toy. Now, it had been transformed into a high-speed smuggling ship that was loaded to the gunwales with tightly wrapped bundles of narcotics. It had been making its way up the coast of California when Barracuda was ordered to intercept. The Coast Guard ship¡¯s spotlight cut through the darkness to illuminate the smuggling vessel and its cargo. Three men were spotted on the smuggler¡¯s ship, one ducking down at the helm, and two others in the aft passenger area. Watkins could see the two in the passenger area poking their heads up for a look, only to be blinded by the spotlight. A chopper was on the way to support them, but there was no way Captain Watkins was going to wait another twenty minutes for it to arrive before he acted. Odds were that the crew would scuttle the ship before they allowed it to be captured. Intel from the DEA had indicated that the ship was smuggling another massive load of Fentanyl for the cartel. If those drugs reached shore and were distributed, a fresh wave of overdose deaths and misery would flood the streets up and down the California coast. Watkins¡¯ ship, the USCGC Barracuda would normally have trouble keeping up with their target, but one of the engines on the smugglers¡¯ ship seemed to have some kind of mechanical trouble, slowing them considerably. ¡°No response to our hails on the radio, sir,¡± Seaman Mays, who was manning their comms, announced just before Watkins could ask. His crew was a solid one. Their previous commander had done a great job with training, such a good job that he had been promoted to command one of the Coast Guard¡¯s larger ships. His promotion allowed Watkins a chance to take over a month ago. For an aging Coast Guard officer, this was probably his last chance at command before retirement. ¡°We¡¯re taking fire!¡± Petty Officer Lane announced. Watkins could see flashes of automatic weapons fire coming from the smuggler¡¯s vessel as they sprayed his ship. One of the two gunners manning their pair of M2 .50 caliber machineguns on pintle mounts at the bow went down. Calls for a corpsman were shouted out. Before Watkins could even order it, the other gunner, a sailor named Hopkins, opened fire on the smugglers. The heavy machine gun rounds hammered out by the venerable M2 machine gun easily shattered the fiberglass body of the smuggler¡¯s ship as the gunner walked his fire toward their attackers. One of the smugglers stood and aimed what looked like an RPG launcher at their ship, but a burst of .50 caliber rounds nearly tore the man in half. More rounds peppered the area that the shooter had appeared from, just in case another crewman was down there trying to recover the launcher. An impossibly bright light filled Captain Watkins¡¯ vision, and a wave of force crashed into him. Darkness encroached and just before his mind went blank, Watkins realized that the rounds fired by Hopkins had hit something other than bundles of drugs on the smugglers ship. It must have also been carrying more firepower than just a few rifles and an RPG. Whatever ordinance the smugglers were trying to bring ashore, it was enough to blow both their ship, and the Barracuda, to bits. Watkins drifted in the darkness, wondering what would happen next. He figured he was dead, or maybe horribly injured and unconscious. But if he was just knocked out from the blast, he wouldn¡¯t be able to think so clearly, would he? He couldn¡¯t feel anything and at least there was no pain. All he could do was wait, though his impatience was growing by the second. Potential viable candidate for experimental core integration has been located and secured. Stand by as this lifeform is tested. The words appeared in front of him as Watkins also heard them in his mind. He finally felt something other than just numbness. Memories flashed through Watkins¡¯ vision as something sifted through his mind. His flow of memories stopped at certain times, as if someone was slowing their search and taking a greater interest in them. The stopping points were mostly during important events in his military career and also during his college days where he acquired a master¡¯s degree in military history. The subject known as Jesse Watkins possesses a compatible knowledge base for core integration. Approximately 47.4% of his mind could be considered extraneous. Deletion of unwanted data and reformatting for core integration will now begin. His memories? Whoever this was wanted to take almost half his memories. Terror squeezed at Watkins¡¯ mind. To lose his memories was to lose who he was.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°No, you can¡¯t take my memories!¡± Watkins screamed in his mind at whoever was doing this to him. It shocked him that he had no voice, but just thinking the words seemed to have the same effect. The subject has lodged an objection to the complete deletion of extraneous memory data. Prior experiments indicate a 58.5% chance of integration failure if the subject is actively resisting integration. This failure chance is unacceptable. Please wait as adjudication is requested. Processing¡­ A compromise will be offered to the subject. Extraneous deleted information will be stored offsite. When your core grows in power and can reabsorb the data without affecting your performance, the stored data will be unlocked and made available for you to download. ¡°That sounds better than deleting my memories, but where am I and why am I here?¡± Watkins thought toward the strange computer-like being that seemed to be in control of his afterlife. A provisional acceptance of the terms offered has been noted. Subject requests additional information regarding his current situation. Request for additional instruction and background information has been sent for adjudication. Request denied. The window for successful core integration is closing. As a partial compromise, a limited amount of additional information on his prior existence will be integrated into the Limited Adjunct Network Interface. Prepare for core integration. With that final statement, Watkins¡¯ existence exploded in pain. His mind was ripped apart, and as promised, memories were torn out and sent elsewhere as new data was integrated into his very being. Pain and emotion were replaced by an innate knowledge of the core that he was becoming. Watkins¡¯ mind still felt fear over what was happening to him, but he also found that fear was greatly diminished from what it should have been. His mind felt more stable than it had ever felt before, but Watkins also felt somewhat less than human. Before he could contemplate what he had become, more information appeared. Core data compression successful. Installation into existing core housing will now commence. Existing links have been located in the core power matrix. You have unlocked and received the control codes for an experimental Universal Fabricator. ¡°Fabricators, core housing? What was going on?¡± Watkins asked himself and whatever entity was projecting these words into his head. Inquiries from the newly designated core are no longer being accepted. Please reserve all questions for when you unlock and activate your Limited Adjunct Network Interface. With that message, Watkins felt himself hurled into the void. This odd feeling of movement continued for some time, and Watkins wished he had some way to track or mark time. After what could have been seconds or years, he felt the sense of movement slow, then stop. His mind was compressed as it began to install itself into a physical object. Cold metallic alloys and clear, armored plastic came into view around him. He was being sealed into some device. Whether this device would become a home, or a prison, remained to be seen. He felt uncomfortable, like he didn¡¯t quite fit into the space he was being forced into. Also, Watkins sensed that his new home wasn¡¯t exactly as secure as it seemed. After a few minutes of discomfort, everything seemed to click into place and a flurry of messages appeared. Core integration complete. External viewing is activating. Starting Initialization process. Error, network connection failed. Unable to interface with vessel. Adjunct is offline. No connection to station Alpha 712 is detected. No connection to the station at Jump Point 1 is detected. No connection to the station at Jump Point 2 is detected. Examining hardline connections¡­ Master controls are disconnected. All ship subsystem controls are disconnected. Checking for any viable hardline connections¡­ Connection to Universal Fabricator, Level 0 detected. Connection to Reprocessor, Level 0 detected. No further connections detected. Priority task: Utilize active connections in order to effect repairs and complete integration with your vessel. A vision of the world outside Watkins¡¯ cage appeared, and the view wasn¡¯t exactly a pretty one. He was placed in the corner of a square metal room. A single, sealed hatchway on the far wall led from the room to who knew where. Watkins had no way to measure how large the room was, and he couldn¡¯t turn his head to see anything to the sides or behind him. For a few seconds, panic began to grip Watkins. He had been aboard his ship, the Barracuda, one moment, and then blasted into oblivion the next. Somehow, whoever controlled the strange computer-like text had recruited him for some mission that he had no idea about. Now, he found himself bound to some unknown device and his human body was completely gone. Almost as suddenly as the panic hit, it dissipated away. Watkins¡¯ mind shifted, refusing to allow emotion to cloud it. The feeling was unnatural, and he knew in his very being that to eliminate all emotion was to eliminate who he truly was. A war inside Watkins began to take place, the strange data that had usurped so many of his memories struggled against what remained of the man he once was. Neither of the two sides, his humanity, and the new parts of his mind could gain an advantage. He struggled against himself, one moment fighting to remember and keep who he had been, and the next, he felt an overwhelming need to suppress emotion and accept his integration into this new existence. A sharp, low pain lanced across Watkins and both sides of his mind decided to make a truce as a new threat emerged. Your core is under attack. Core housing durability is at 99%. Chapter 3. Get it off Me. Chapter 3. Get it off Me. ¡°What¡¯s that!¡± Watkins said as shifted his view toward the damaged section of his core. There, gnawing at scratching at the core was a nasty creature he had never seen before. It looked like an oversized rat had somehow combined with a bug. It stood on all fours and had a hard, chitinous outer shell that was broken up by patches of mangy fur. He was distracted from the nasty-looking creature by the realization that he had just spoken. Watkins¡¯ voice sounded like his own, but had a robotic tone to it, like someone had run it though a poorly programmed audio filter and pumped it through a cheap speaker. Fresh spikes of pain brought his attention back to the creature. He was shocked to see that its little claws and sharp teeth of the rat thing were somehow managing to shave small bits of metal from his core housing. Mutated Bilge Rat, Threat Level 0. Bilge rats are common on most spacefaring vessels and must be regularly eradicated to prevent damage to delicate systems, and contamination of foodstuffs. These vermin are attracted to power conduits and seek out reactors and other power sources to feed upon. This example has been mutated by an unknown method and has taken on aspects of another common shipboard pest, the Yendax Beetle. ¡°Who keeps popping those words into my head?¡± Watkins asked. System messages are integrated into your core. They exist to guide you and inform you of the various aspects of your new existence. ¡°Okay, so how do I stop that rat-bug thing? It¡¯s really starting to hurt,¡± Watkins asked. Examining existing connections. No Mobile Offensive Battle Units (MOBS) are connected to this network. No repair drone support units are connected to the network. A link to the universal fabricator has been detected. Suggested course of action, utilize the fabricator to create a repair drone. ¡°How do I do that?¡± Watkins asked. If this repair drone could fix the damage the rat-bug was doing, he was more than happy to build one. To access the universal fabricator, seek out the production menu. As soon as Watkins thought about asking what a production menu was, he felt it. It was like a thin tendril of his will connected to the fabricator device. As he examined the connection, some options appeared in front of him. Universal Fabricator Production Menu.
  1. Simple repair drone. Level 0. This drone will perform repairs and maintenance on your vessel automatically or can be directed by the core to a specific task or priority. Fabrication of this drone requires 5 units of salvage.
Current salvage reserves: 7. Watkins had barely enough to make a drone. He ordered a drone to be construction and waited for something to happen. The current salvage reserve total began to tick down, but when Watkins tried to watch the drone being constructed, he found his vision was blocked. He could sense the fabricator was nearby, and that he maintained a connection to it, but his field of vision was limited to his core and the immediate area around it. Somehow, he knew that he should have vision over the entire ship, but there was something blocking him from doing so. Wait, that was where he was, wasn¡¯t it? He was on a ship. No, he wasn¡¯t on a ship, he was the ship. That was the purpose of his core, to control and power the ship around him. Despite his revelation, Watkins found that he could do little with the knowledge. Something was wrong with the vessel he was on, and as much as he tried, Watkins couldn¡¯t detect the rocking of the sea around them. Hopefully, the damage to his vessel wasn¡¯t so bad that he¡¯d start to take on water. No, that wasn¡¯t right either, he wasn¡¯t at sea like he had been as human sailor, he was in space. It was bizarre to have these little bits of knowledge suddenly unlocked inside his mind, but it was also frustrating as each bit of data that he possessed about his new life, meant one more bit of himself had been replaced to put it there. At least the strange system that seemed to govern his new life had mentioned that he could unlock his old memories again, but they were being stored somewhere else.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Thoughts of his old life stopped when a fresh wave of pain lanced into his body. Core housing durability is at 98%. The nasty rat-bug wasn¡¯t stopping and didn¡¯t seem to get tired of tearing into Watkins. He needed that drone in here, pronto, if he wanted to get himself repaired. A quick check showed that his salvage reserves were down to 3, and his drone was 80% complete. Another minute passed and he received notification that the drone was on the job. You have constructed a simple repair drone. Acceptable command limit levels detected. Available salvage is at 1. Production of this unit was completed below maximum efficiency and required additional salvage. Watkins immediately ordered his drone to begin repairs on his core. A moment later, a small, square section on the bottom of the far wall retracted, and the drone walked into the compartment. His drone was about the size of a small dog, slightly larger than the creepy rat that was attacking him. The drone had a rectangular metal and plastic body with six spider-like legs attached. Two arms made from thin, hinged metal rods were attached along the back of the drone, each arm ending in a three-fingered hand capable of using the various tools that were housed inside the drone¡¯s body. It made whirring noises, and the metallic legs occasionally clacked against the floor as it moved. As the drone moved in to effect repairs, the rat noticed it. With a hiss, the rat tried to warn off the drone. It didn¡¯t want to share its prize with anyone, or anything, else. The drone halted its approach, and a communication line opened between Watkins and the drone. Hostile lifeform has been detected. As the sole surviving drone on this vessel, additional permissions are needed due to the potential risk of this situation. Conflict is likely if this unit attempts repairs. Please inform this unit of the optimal course of action. ¡°Kill that rat!¡± Watkins shouted; his odd sounding voice carried a hint of desperation that seemed to overcome the drone¡¯s hesitancy. Please be advised that this unit is suboptimal for combat duties. It is recommended that any further combat be completed with an appropriate Mobile Offensive Battle Unit, not a unit designated for maintenance and repair. ¡°Sorry repair drone, you¡¯re all I have to fight with,¡± Watkins said to his minion. Authorization received, engaging hostile entity. With that, the drone began to clatter its way forward. The drone¡¯s two arms hesitated for a moment before selecting the tools it would use as makeshift weapons. One arm held what looked like a slightly bent screwdriver and the other held a metal mallet that looked far too heavy for its thin, metal arms to manage. Seeing the threat, the rat-bug slashed Watkins¡¯ core housing one last time before spitting out an even louder hiss and launching itself at the drone. The drone responded without fear, stabbing the screwdriver deep into the side of the rat-bug¡¯s body. The strike made the rat squeal even louder and latch its jaws onto the arm holding the screwdriver. The drone hadn¡¯t been lying when it said it wasn¡¯t built for combat. Teeth that had barely shaved a sliver of metal off Watkins¡¯ core housing crunched completely through the drone¡¯s metal arm, which was apparently hollow and not as robust as Watkins had hoped. Incapable of feeling pain, the drone kept up the assault, using the hammer in its other hand to smash into the rat¡¯s skull. With a sickening crunch, the hammer cracked through the skull of the bug-rat. Lumpy, grey mush stuck to the hammer as the drone repeated the strike two more times. Finally, after the last blow, new words appeared in front of Watkins. Mutated Bilge Rat, threat level 0, has been eliminated. Do you wish to salvage the remains? Y/N. Watkins was about to ask how he would salvage the remains when he remembered that he was connected to something called a Reprocessor. Its function seemed to be turning debris, or it appeared, even the corpses of living creatures, into salvage for his vessel to use. Ordering the drone to salvage the remains, Watkins watched as it first began to repair its severed arm. It took a few minutes of work using a welding tool built into one of its legs before the drone was whole again. Once it had repaired itself, the drone shoved the bleeding corpse of the rat creature into a storage compartment on the drone¡¯s back and returned through the retractable portion of the wall it had entered from. As it left Watkins¡¯ compartment, he lost sight of it. The damage to his core housing ached a bit, but it was more of a minor irritation now that the rat thing wasn¡¯t actively chewing on him. With the excitement over the attack dying down, Watkins found himself returning to the internal struggle he had faced earlier. His two sides warred, one wanting Watkins to sink into cold logic, and the other battling to keep ahold of his humanity. As he fought with himself, Watkins thought about the battle with the mutated rat. It had been a potentially deadly situation for him. If the drone had lost the fight, he would have been slowly consumed by the rat, enduring excruciating pain as the damage to his core mounted. This new life was a dangerous one, and his position was precarious. Maybe it was time for him to embrace both sides of his existence. He needed the cold, logical portion of his mind, the one that seemed more in tune with operating his core. He also needed his humanity, which he somehow knew would be crucial for the future. A truce of sorts was formed, each part of his being taking on the tasks it was best suited for. The cold logical portion of his mind also brought up the fact that as Watkins repaired and upgraded himself, he would regain more of his humanity. When fully functional, Watkins would lose nothing of his humanity, and would instead have gained a calculating, logical mind that his ship could put to good use. With the conflict inside himself over, or at least postponed for a time, he got to work. Watkins had a ship to repair, and to do that, he was going to need more salvage. Chapter 4. Beyond the Core. Chapter 4. Beyond the Core. Watkins couldn¡¯t see where the drone brought the rat carcass. Just like with his fabricator, the reprocessor was in a different compartment where he had no vision. After several minutes, the drone returned and began to fix up the scratches that the mutated rat had carved into his core housing. Despite welding and using various other tools on his core housing, the drone¡¯s efforts had a soothing effect instead of the pain he expected to feel. It wasn¡¯t long before Watkins confirmed he was good as new, well, at least as good as he had been earlier. Something told Watkins that there were a lot more repairs and upgrades ahead of him if he wanted to gain control over his ship and function as he was intended to. Core housing durability: 100%. Available Salvage: 0. Available Biomass: 1. He was out of salvage, but something new was there, biomass. That must be what the rat corpse had been turned into. There had to be a use for it, but he could worry about that later. Right now, he needed to figure out a way to see beyond this one compartment. He felt a deep-rooted need to expand his presence. This ship was his, and he wouldn¡¯t stop until it was all back under his control. Taking a good look at the compartment he was in showed that it was a mess. Part of the ceiling had buckled and there were the remains of a device that reminded Watkins of a computer server in the corner opposite his core. While the computer server thing was probably important, all the other garbage and debris strewn about the room was useless. It was a perfect source of salvage as far as Watkins was concerned. Pulling up his drone command interface, Watkins played around with the settings until he figured out how to assign his drone to begin gathering salvage in his compartment. The drone went to work, and the whole process reminded Watkins of one of those robot vacuums. It clattered its way methodically across the floor, but instead of dragging each tiny bit of debris out of the room and to the reprocessor, wherever that was, it placed the debris in a compartment at the back of its rectangular main body. After a few moments the debris placed inside would be compacted down to make room for more. When the drone had filled its salvage compartment, it left the compartment to drop off the salvage for reprocessing. As the drone made its delivery to the reprocessor, Watkins noticed that his available salvage had increased by one. It was slow going, but eventually, the available salvage ticked up to five and Watkins was able to start production of a second drone. With two drones sweeping up the debris, the compartment was slowly scoured of anything useful. As the last of the floor was taken care of, the drones began to effortlessly climb the walls, their spider-like legs somehow finding purchase on the slick metal. They cut off a damaged section of the wall, which clattered to the deck with more noise than Watkins would have liked. By removing the bent and battered section of wall, it revealed the ingress point that the rat had used to enter the compartment and attack his core. One of the drones began to straighten out the wall panel when another of the mutated rats clambered through the opening. Watkins immediately ordered his drones to attack as the rat made a beeline for his core. Before it could reach the core, the drone that had been trying to flatten the bent panel charged forward, using the welder integrated into one of its legs to burn through the back of rat. Just like the first fight, his drone didn¡¯t come out unscathed as the rat snapped off one of the drone¡¯s legs before it succumbed to the welder. Seeing the smoking corpse of the rat, Watkins was glad he no longer had a sense of smell. He could see, hear, and communicate, and seemed content with those senses for the time being. What he had was all he needed to complete the task of securing his vessel. The damaged drone repaired itself, then dragged the rat carcass off to wherever the reprocessor was located. While it was gone, the other drone continued to work, taking over as it bashed and welded the bent section of wall back into its original shape. When the other drone returned, the pair lugged the now-repaired panel into place and welded the opening closed. It was an ugly repair, but it would probably keep the rats out or at least hold them back long enough for him to respond. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. You have unlocked a new schematic. Your fabricator can now construct Mutated Bilge Rats as a Level 0 Mobile Offensive Battle System (MOBS). The cost to create this MOBS is 5 biomass and 1 salvage. Available Salvage: 4. Available Biomass: 2. Knowledge clicked into place and Watkins could see how to recreate a version of these creatures. His creations would have a processor implanted in its brain, as well as some structural enhancements. This would give him complete control over the creature and allow it some autonomous control. While it didn¡¯t possess tools or weapons, the mutated rat MOBS instinctually knew how to fight, and enhanced by Watkins¡¯ technology, should perform better in combat than its natural kin. Until he acquired more biomass, Watkins would have to wait before he could go Doctor Frankenstein and create swarms of mutant bug-rats to defend his core. For now, his pair of drones would have to suffice. Soon, he would be able to add a third drone if their resource gathering continued to show results. Watkins was a bit worried that he¡¯d run out of resources to gather. So far, the floors had been swept clean, and there wasn¡¯t much on the walls and ceiling of the compartment that could be scrounged without tearing new holes in the place. About the only other thing he could think of was to try and break down the ruined server. Up until now, he was a bit concerned about touching it. Somewhere in his new memories, he recognized the device as important. Damaged as it was, its usefulness might be at an end. At least now it could serve as salvage and help him to create another drone to help protect and repair his ship. Please confirm you wish to salvage the server housing your Limited Adjunct Network Interface. This is a critical piece of ship infrastructure and requires an override by the core to proceed. That was something new. His new memories weren¡¯t complete, but it was important enough that the drone was going to make him confirm that he wanted to turn it into salvage. Instead of reprocessing it, Watkins took a chance and ordered one of the drones to attempt to repair it. The drone spent some time walking around and over the ruined server before it began to pull out more delicate tools to start its work. The available salvage trickled down. When the salvage reserves hit zero, the drone stopped its work and went to assist its comrade in clearing up the rest of the damaged walls and ceiling sections. Their work deposited another point of salvage and the drone that had started the repairs ceased its salvaging duties and returned to its repair task. Watkins could see that several general orders could be programmed into his drones. Right now, they were all set to repair and defend and repair his core as their top priority. After that, it was salvaging operations, though the task of repairing the network interface device in his compartment superseded the salvage commands. In the future, Watkins could adjust settings as he desired, but for now, he kept the drones¡¯ work priorities at their current settings. He watched as the drone worked on repairs. It carried some salvage stored inside its body, but when the salvage ran low, it left the compartment, and went to what Watkins presumed was the reprocessor to gather more. When the latest point of salvage was gathered, Watkins could feel something click in his mind and the server began to light up as it came online. The Limited Adjunct Network Interface (LANI) is now active. Please note that some data was lost when this Adjunct was damaged. ¡°What¡¯s a LANI do?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I was tasked with assisting you through your transition into a ship¡¯s core. In addition, you¡¯ll assist me in my primary task,¡± a feminine voice said. It had the same artificial quality to it that Watkins¡¯ voice had, but somehow, it was comforting to talk to someone else other than a drone waiting for commands. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Captain Watkins. Pleased to meet you LANI,¡± Watkins said, trying to be polite with his new neighbor. ¡°Thank you for your welcome. Tell me, Captain, how long have you been active? My database is damaged, and many portions of my history post-installation are missing,¡± LANI asked. Watkins was about to answer that he had no idea how long he had been here, but as he was about to say it, the knowledge clicked into place. From the time he was snatched up from the exploding drug runner¡¯s boat, Watkins had been here in this world for over a century while he slowly acclimated to the core he now inhabited. It seemed impossible, but the chronometer in his core had been functioning correctly the whole time. ¡°It¡¯s been 112 years, 9 months, and 14 days since I¡¯ve been brought here. I should note that I¡¯ve only been awake for a short time,¡± Watkins muttered, still hardly believing how long it had taken for him to wake up as the ship¡¯s core. ¡°That is¡­longer than I expected,¡± LANI admitted. She went quiet and Watkins gave her some time to process everything. ¡°It seems this vessel is in worse shape than I had anticipated. No matter, I will do what I can to guide you on the right path. There are some security protocols in place, and I¡¯ll need your permission to access data and suggest actions to improve our odds of survival,¡± LANI said as a new prompt appeared. Your Limited Adjunct Network Interface has requested access to your database and system logs. Do you wish her to have access to this information? Y/N. Chapter 5. Expanding Control. Chapter 5. Expanding Control. Watkins wasn¡¯t sure if he wanted to risk allowing this LANI to have access to his systems. He no longer had a physical human body, and his core and data were essentially him. Was this LANI a risk, or someone who could truly help? The strange system programming that seemed to guide his life kicked in at his hesitation and offered some alternatives. Additional access options have been unlocked.
  1. Full access and administrative rites to database, system logs and core.
  2. Unrestricted access to database and system logs.
  3. Full access to review, but not alter, database and system logs.
  4. Full and reciprocal access to review, but not alter, database and system logs. All personal information and any specific files chosen by the core are restricted.
  5. Deny any access.
Watkins knew that he needed help to navigate his new life, but he was loathe to give anyone control over him. Of the five options, he eliminated both one and two, since they seemed the riskiest. Denying access was also the wrong call. They were going to need each other¡¯s help to survive. Four was probably the right call, it gave this LANI access to review the information she needed but kept her away from anything that linked to the humanity that Watkins desired to keep. He would also have the same access to peruse her data, but despite having the access, he somehow knew that such a delve into LANI¡¯s database was beyond him, at least for now. You have granted the Limited Adjunct Network Interface full and reciprocal access to review, but not alter, database and system logs. All personal information and any specifically chosen files are inaccessible. Please note that your core currently lacks the processing power to fully integrate into and read the Adjuncts data nets. ¡°Thank you, Captain Watkins. Give me a moment while I review what occurred before I was activated,¡± Lani said. While Watkins waited, he tried to order his drones to gather salvage in the compartment where the reprocessor was located. Sadly, they didn¡¯t seem to be able to follow those orders since Watkins had no view over the area. Apparently, they could travel back and forth to drop off resources to the reprocessor, but he could only order them to harvest in an area, or perform other functions, when he could see that area. ¡°Interesting, there are several things going on here. The last thing I remember was that a kobold ship had jumped into the system and launched an attack on the station I was based out of. I installed some of my consciousness into this vessel and ordered the station monitoring your world to seek out a viable candidate for core integration. ¡°After that, I don¡¯t remember much, but from the ship¡¯s logs it appears they were successful in integrating you into the ship¡¯s core. Sadly, it appears that the jump point linked to your world¡¯s system collapsed after retrieving you and your crew. That jump point was always a bit of an anomaly and an ancillary task for our researchers to investigate. ¡°Now, let¡¯s see, the kobold attack, which consisted of a pair of missiles, destroyed most of the station, and this ship had just left it docking clamp and was caught up in much of the blast. We drifted while you were being created, and even collided with some debris, further damaging the ship. Our ship remains critically damaged, and we have a lot of work to do to bring things back under control,¡± LANI explained. She paused for a bit and Watkins could feel something change, it was like a part of him was suddenly freed. ¡°There, I was able to unlock a bit of your personal memories. I¡¯m sorry that it¡¯s not much, but I suspect there will be more to find of both of us as we grow in power,¡± LANI said as images began to assault Watkins¡¯ vision. It was a series of images starting with his childhood. Watkins watched the child version of him enjoying a Christmas morning with his parents. His parents smiled as Watkins opened a new gaming console that he had badly wanted. His mind filled with hopes that some of the neighborhood kids would come over to play with him. He always wanted a brother, or perhaps even a sister to play with, but he was an only child. He noticed things that his child¡¯s mind hadn¡¯t picked up on. There was stress on his parents¡¯ faces, and he could tell they were pained when he voiced his wish to have friends over, and to have a brother one day. Watkins felt sad as his parents looked at each other, his father squeezing his mother¡¯s hand as if to tell her it was going to be okay, even when it wasn¡¯t. There was more there, the reason for their pain, but the memory was incomplete, and he watched as the images changed. Watkins was now a teenager, walking down the hallway of his high school. One of the kids pulled the backpack off a girl¡¯s shoulder, opening it and scattering the contents over the hallway. Names were called, and he remembered that the girl was the focus of horrible lies about her life and had been picked on by many in the school. Anger flared in Watkins, but not at the bully, he was angry at himself as he joined in with others and mocked the girl instead of standing up for her. His desire to fit in was stronger than his desire to help someone that needed it. That event had eaten at him, and from that day, Watkins had dedicated himself to defending those that lacked the strength to do so on their own. A final image appeared; it was from early in his Coast Guard career and Watkins was pulling a boater from the water. The family had been enjoying a day on the coast when a drunk on a small watercraft slammed into their boat. Thankfully, they had worn their life vests, but the smallest child, a girl only seven or eight years old, slipped out of hers as Watkins¡¯ team arrived. Watkins jumped off his ship, diving down to pull that girl back to the surface. The little girl was choking and crying, but that also meant that she was alive. A sense of pride and accomplishment filled him, and at that time, a decade after the events in the school hallway, he felt that he had, in some small way, begun to make amends for his moment of weakness and cruelty. The images cleared as this batch of memories settling into his very being. A bit more of himself had been recovered, but there was still so much more he had to find.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Thank you for that, LANI, but what do we do now? I only have vision over this compartment and we¡¯re out of resources here. I don¡¯t know all that much about how I operate, but I do realize that tearing apart the compartment that I¡¯m installed in for salvage would be a horrible decision,¡± Watkins asked, his mind still reeling a bit from the memories he¡¯d absorbed. ¡°It seems your core integration tutorial programs were never written and installed. We¡¯ll have to resort to some trial and error here. Hmm, I can see that you have a hardline connection to both the reprocessor and the fabricator. That¡¯s good, had either been completely destroyed in the attack, we would be in a bad spot. ¡°Hmm, first off, we need to expand your control over the ship compartments between here and where your hardline connections are linked. As you expand your control, your vision over the ship will improve, and with that, your core¡¯s power to build and make changes,¡± LANI explained. ¡°How do I extend my control? That¡¯s the problem I have, LANI, I know that it¡¯s possible for me to expand my control, I just don¡¯t know how to go about making it happen,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Your core is a rather unique and experimental design. You must exert and focus your processing power on establishing the connections you wish to have. In this case, permeating your will throughout the next compartment. Once you have done that, you can observe and interact with it the same way you are doing here. Take some time and try to concentrate on extending your will,¡± LANI advised. ¡°I¡¯ll give it a go,¡± Watkins replied. He wasn¡¯t sure how to start so he tried to cut off all visual stimulus and focus on his other senses. It was eerily like closing his eyes to concentrate when he was still a flesh and blood human. Watkins lost track of time as he tried to find these connections LANI was talking about. His mind drifted, but just as he was about to give up, he felt something. There, in the moveable wall panel that the drones used to drop off resources. He could sense a connection there, and that his core was the one controlling the panel¡¯s opening. A power conduit linked the panel to Watkins, and he pushed against that connection, following where it was mounted inside the compartment wall. The wall was a cold, dead alloy, but here and there, connections existed. Some were more old power conduits; others were devices mounted in the room that he didn¡¯t quite understand yet. Still more things were imbedded in the actual alloy that made up his ship, an entire network of sensors and other microscopic controls that allowed communication, life support, power, inertial dampers, and network controls. What had seemed a cold, dead metal wall, was actually part of him, and as Watkins pushed, he could feel the wall come to life. Most of the microscopic devices in the walls were inert, dead and damaged. Others responded to his call, and Watkins could feel his core power slowly permeate the wall, starting with the area around the drone hatch. More than once, Watkins lost control of the process, forcing him to exert his will over the same section of wall several times. Despite some setbacks, he was making progress. The next compartment was much larger than the one he was housed in, but the further he extended his will, the faster the process seemed to go. He felt something tickle the back of his mind, and Watkins lost all concentration. It was just as he was incorporating the floor into his control, and the area he had already secured began to recede. He felt another force at work, and at first, he thought it some enemy, a competitor that wished to usurp control of his vessel from him. As he prepared to fight back, Watkins realized that it wasn¡¯t some unknown force trying to steal his ship from him. It was LANI, and instead of trying to gain control, she was trying to help him. Her processing power was slaved to his core and with the extra assistance, he quickly regained the lost ground and began on the final section of the compartment, the ceiling. Even with LANI¡¯s assistance, Watkins felt his energy fade as they finished the last corner of the ceiling. Exhausted, his concentration broke for good, and he could no longer force his will into the compartment. To his delight, Watkins¡¯ control over the compartment didn¡¯t fade. It was like something clicked into place and that compartment was once more a part of him. ¡°That was exhausting, I¡¯m afraid that I will need some time to recover,¡± LANI explained. Watkins felt the same way, and an inspection of his core revealed the issue. You have gained control of the fabrication compartment of your ship. This is the main production area for anything you possess the schematic for. The act of permeating you will into this compartment is complete, but it will take time to fully integrate it into your systems. Until this compartment is fully integrated, you will be unable to expand your control over other compartments. Current integration is at 12%. ¡°LANI, I have a question I was hoping you could answer. These message prompts announcing things keep appearing, where are they coming from?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°They¡¯re coming from your core. It¡¯s the internal guidelines that dictate how you operate,¡± LANI paused for a moment as if contemplating the best way to respond. ¡°Let me explain it this way. When you were alive, you had autonomous functions in your body, such as your heart beating, or your food digesting. You didn¡¯t need to concentrate on them to use them. The system prompts are a lot like that, a portion of your core that is always operating to guide and inform you of important data,¡± LANI explained. He wasn¡¯t sure he believed or trusted LANI 100% yet, but the explanation was at least a logical one. Further questions could wait, he now had a new compartment that he wanted to explore. With his control in place, Watkins finally had a view over what this new compartment held. Just like his core compartment, this one showed extensive damage, and he could feel that his ship¡¯s keel had buckled at some point, warping the entire structure. An image of a car with frame damage popped into Watkins¡¯ mind. While it was reassuring to recover even a tiny fragment of an old memory of his humanity, the image of the car did little to improve the situation. Watkins shook it off and continued his examination. The compartment was rectangular and on one of the long walls was a huge machine that resembled a giant refrigerator that had fallen on its side. It was the fabricator that he had used earlier to build his repair drones. The other long wall held storage racks that probably once held spare parts and partially completed projects. Now, most of the storage racks were empty, save for a few dust-covered and battered objects that he couldn¡¯t identify. The center of the compartment¡¯s floor was creased and there were even several cracks in it, with dark, openings to whatever was beneath this compartment. He could now feel the outline of the access hatch his drones had used to traverse compartments. There was also something new, built around the drone access hatch. It was a hidden, and much larger hatch. It had been designed to hide any unwanted access to his core room, and the metal of that entire wall was much denser than the rest of the compartment. Just as he was about to order his drones inside to start cleaning up and salvaging what they could, Watkins spotted movement. He heard something clanging on metal, and another of the mutated rats poked its head out of the dark opening in the floor. The rat sniffed around, then began to climb its way into the compartment. It turned and looked at the wall separating the fabrication compartment from his core. Somehow, the creature sensed that Watkins was hidden inside, and it wanted to get at him and devour his core. As the mutated rat stalked its way toward the drone access hatch, Watkins saw more movement from under the storage racks. These things were after him again, and Watkins was worried that only two repair drones might not be enough protection. Chapter 6. Rat War. Chapter 6. Rat War. ¡°LANI, it looks like more of the rats are coming for us,¡± Watkins said. LANI was still a bit of out of it after helping him secure control of the compartment, but he could feel her shift her focus onto the mutant rat stalking its way toward the drone hatch. ¡°Wait, look at the others, those rats are not the same as the ones that attacked us,¡± LANI said. She was right, the movement that Watkins had spotted from under the storage racks wasn¡¯t more of the mutated rats, these were much more normal looking. ¡°Why are those not mutated? Wait, why are there even rats aboard the ship, mutant or not, what were they eating? We¡¯ve been drifting out here for over a century,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°It must be your core energy, Watkins, that¡¯s the reason there is so much life aboard your ship. It¡¯s probably also the reason it took so long for you to become conscious. These rats, mutants, and whatever else might be aboard, are being sustained by your core energy,¡± LANI said. ¡°But how did they get onboard in the first place? You can¡¯t tell me that there are rats and other vermin on spaceships. They were never a problem on the warships I served on,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Not every ship is maintained to the same standards. I don¡¯t have the data available anymore, but I do remember that the council contracted with third parties to bring supplies out to the station. Undoubtedly, some of those vessels carried vermin, and those vermin, without any automated maintenance systems remaining operable, must have infested the station, and your attached vessel. ¡°Given an ample food supply, in this case, your core energy, they would multiply and thrive while aboard. Oh my, look at that,¡± LANI said, sudden cutting off her explanation. Watkins, who had been focused on the mutated rat the whole time, watched the six other rats pounce on and begin to attack the mutated creature. They were all about the same size, but the mutated rat seemed to be stronger than the others. Not only was it stronger, but it had also more natural weapons to work with. The mutated rat had a hard, chitinous outer layer that other rats had trouble penetrating. They were still hurting the mutant, but the damage seemed negligible. In return, the mutant was easily able to clamp onto the rough, hairy bodies of the normal rats, each bite inflicting grievous wounds on its target. It was hard to keep track of the fight, as the rats swarmed over each other in a confusing ball of combat. One, then another of the normal rats fell to the mutant¡¯s bite, their lifeless bodies flopping onto the buckled decking. As it killed off the third normal rat, two more charged out from under the shelving, reinforcing their kin. ¡°That mutant is a real monster, isn¡¯t it,¡± Watkins commented as the thing made its fourth kill of the fight. ¡°Truly, but quantity counts for something,¡± LANI replied, watching as yet another pair of rats charged out to join the fight. The normal rats were finally starting to have an impact, and Watkins noticed that several had focused on the back left leg of the mutant. After killing another normal rat, the mutant began to back away, heading toward the opening in the deck it had emerged from. The fight continued, but things slowed down a bit. Both sides were wary of each other, and only when they thought they had a good opening would one lunge forward to bite. ¡°I¡¯m glad I have a pattern for those mutant rats, we can probably build some eventually,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Wait, why didn¡¯t I see that when I examined your logs and database,¡± LANI said excitedly, going quiet as she sorted through the data they shared. ¡°I gave you permission, I¡¯m not sure why you didn¡¯t see it? I got something called a Mobile Offensive Battle System schematic when the drones reprocessed the ones they killed,¡± Watkins explained. ¡°Interesting, it looks like data on your schematics was locked out until we controlled this chamber. I can see it now that we have direct access to the fabricator. This is good news, but we need to hurry. Send your drones in to gather up the corpses. Make sure they¡¯re specifically tasked with that, not gathering other salvage. Also set them to passive so they don¡¯t stop to defend themselves,¡± LANI said frantically.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Why? Those rats will tear them apart,¡± Watkins said, not wanting to send his only drones into certain death against so many angry opponents. ¡°Please, just do what I requested. The other rats are busy with each other. If our drones can gather up enough biomass, we can build our own mutant rats. Should you delay, one side is going to beat the other and claim the remains as their prize. We need that biomass,¡± LANI explained. Watkins was still not entirely certain that LANI was right, but he figured it wouldn¡¯t hurt to compromise and send one drone, keeping the other in reserve. Giving his drone the command that LANI had suggested, Watkins sent it on its way. The access hatch for the drone slid open, and the unobstructed path to Watkins¡¯ core drew the attention of the mutated rat, who then suffered for it when two of the normal rats shot in and landed solid bites on the mutant. Squealing in pain, the mutant retaliated, snapping at his foes but missing. The mutant¡¯s wounds were building, and the chitinous outer layer of the beast was breached in several places from the repeated bites. A nasty, green tinted blood leaked from the wounds, the scent of which seemed to entice the other rats as they sensed the weakness in their opponent. Watkins turned his attention away from the rat brawl, watching his drone approach the nearest rat corpses. It opened the compartment on the back of its main body, stuffing the rat corpse inside. Only one of the large rats fit inside the storage compartment, but the drone was also able to haul a second rat that it hooked with one of its front legs. Overburdened, the drone began to slowly walk toward the far wall, the rats ignoring it for the time being. Another access panel opened on the far wall, right next to a human-sized hatch. The hatch resembled one that Watkins would expect to find on a submarine back home, but he figured in space, you had to have everything sealed off from potential leaks, just like you¡¯d have to do under the ocean. The drone disappeared through the hatch, ostensibly making its way to the reprocessor. Watkins was hoping the reprocessor was in the next forward compartment, which would be rather convenient as it was probably the target for his next expansion. So far, all the compartments were in a single line, and no passages broke off to the right or left. He couldn¡¯t sense his hull yet, so there was still something between what he¡¯d gained control over and the space his ship was drifting through. With the first drone no worse for wear, Watkins went ahead and ordered the second one to join in the corpse collection. Its entry into the contested compartment didn¡¯t seem to distract the mutated rat this time, who was still backing toward the opening in the deck that it had entered from. Like the previous drone, the second one stuffed a rat corpse into its small storage compartment, and then dragged a second one along with it as it headed deeper into the ship. About that time, the first drone must have made it to the reprocessor as Watkins¡¯ biomass began to increase. Available Salvage: 4. Available Biomass: 4. It looked like the rat corpses provided one biomass. Checking into his MOBS menu, Watkins could see that it took five biomass to create one mutant rat. It seemed rather inefficient, and he asked LANI about it. ¡°It¡¯s due to our reprocessor. The ship was installed with a basic, experimental system that we were testing, but eventually we can upgrade ours to a more efficient model. At least for the time being, it¡¯s all we have to work with,¡± LANI explained. At the far wall, the first drone reentered the fabrication compartment and headed toward the closest rat body. One body from the start of the fight was further away from the brawl, so Watkins directed his drone toward that one, rather than toward the fresh kill the mutant had just made. ¡°I think this is the last one that¡¯s safe to grab,¡± Watkins told LANI. His other drone was just now dropping off its cargo, and the biomass total climbed up to six. He ordered the drone that had just unloaded to return to the core compartment, though he lifted the no combat restriction. If the rats wanted to start something with his drone, it was going to defend itself. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s a good call. We can build one of your mutant rat MOBS now for some extra protection,¡± LANI said. Watkins opened his production tab and selected the only thing he had the supplies to build, a mutant rat. The fabrication machine began to hum, and several lights blinked along its length. It turned out the lights were a way to monitor the progress of the item being created. They moved from the far end of the machine and slowly progressed toward the end closest to Watkins¡¯ core room. While his first non-drone defender was being created, the rat war was wrapping up. The mutant had been badly injured but survived the ordeal and managed to retreat into the floor. A total of five normal rats were still in the compartment, though two of those were injured from the fight. They snatched up the remaining corpses and fled back under the shelving, ignoring Watkins¡¯ drones as they returned to the core compartment. ¡°It seems the normal bilge rats are unconcerned about anything that isn¡¯t biological in nature. As long as our drones don¡¯t attack them, they should leave us alone,¡± LANI suggested. ¡°I¡¯m going to have one of the drones start collecting salvage in there, but only in areas far away from the shelving so we don¡¯t disturb the normal rats,¡± Watkins added, sending a drone in to begin work. His first MOBS unit was almost done as well, and with more salvage coming in, he felt like he was making progress. Chapter 7. Extermination Services. Chapter 7. Extermination Services. ¡°Here it comes, should we name it?¡± Watkins asked as the mutant rat finished construction. ¡°I suppose you could if you wanted to, but these MOBS will likely have a high casualty rate, so I wouldn¡¯t get too attached,¡± LANI said as a panel at the end of the fabrication machine opened and his shiny new mutant rat walked out. You have created your first MOBS. As with your drones, you can individually command your MOBS or set parameters for them to operate under. The processing power of the hybrid biological mind utilized by these creations makes complicated commands impossible. If issued a command the unit doesn¡¯t understand, the until will simply default to guarding its current position or following its last valid orders. That seemed simple enough. For now, Watkins ordered his mutant rat to return to the core room. The creature he¡¯d just built moved oddly, lacking the fluid grace of a real mutant rat. It was a copy and from his original description, it had been listed as level zero, which suggested he could improve the design over time. As soon as the rat moved toward the drone hatch, it opened for the creature. Apparently, his MOBS could also activate and use the hatches just like his drones were able to. A trio of normal rats stuck their noses out from under the storage racks as Watkins¡¯ mutant walked past. The rats hissed at his MOBS but slunk back under the cover of the metal racks as the mutant entered the core room and the hatch closed behind it. ¡°We need to clear those rats out the fabrication compartment. There¡¯s probably a lot of salvage under there that we can¡¯t access as long as they¡¯re a threat,¡± Watkins said. For now, he was too worried about having his drones harvest salvage from that half of the compartment. By his estimation, that was the half of the compartment with the most for him to gather. ¡°The rats were numerous enough to fight off a single mutant, but maybe we¡¯ll have the advantage with our MOBS being backed up by a drone or two,¡± LANI suggested. ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯ll do, harvest this side of the compartment and see how many drones we can produce from that,¡± Watkins decided. Both drones began to harvest salvage, and the amount in storage began to climb. He ordered a third, then a fourth drone to be produced. A slight wave of dizziness hit Watkins, but it slowly faded. ¡°I think you just experienced some strain on your core. With it controlling four drones and our rat, you¡¯re starting to see that there is a limit to how much you can currently handle. Let me see if I can bring something up to help us gauge how many units you can command at once,¡± LANI explained. A few moments later, new information appeared in front of Watkins. Your core has a command limit based on the amount of processing power you can funnel into unit sustainment. Each unit you build brings you closer to this limit, and once you reach it, you cannot construct any additional units. Upgraded and enhanced units may require additional command limit resources. Command Limit: 5/10. Current units: Level 0.
  1. Simple repair drone. (4).
  2. Mutant rat MOBS (1).
¡°LANI, how do I grow my command limit?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°We¡¯ll have to research how to improve it. To do that, we¡¯ll need to develop something that functions as a research module. Before we can work on research, I think we¡¯ll need to retake control of the rest of the ship. I can see that I have a schematic in my database for a basic research module, but I can¡¯t unlock it yet with the damage to my server. You would also need more processing power to operate the module than we currently possess,¡± LANI replied. ¡°How do I get more processing power if I can¡¯t research a way to upgrade my core?¡± Watkins asked, confused over the seemingly impossible bottleneck. ¡°The key is ship control. As you probably found when claiming the fabricator compartment, the entire ship is infused with tech to help you run it. The more areas of the vessel we control, the more you¡¯ll be able to tap into that tech. Your command limit, as well as your other abilities will improve as we expand. Eventually, we¡¯ll control the entire ship, and then you¡¯ll need some assistance via the research modules,¡± LANI explained.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°I get it, let¡¯s get to work and claim my ship. With four drones and the mutant, I think we can take on the rat nest under the storage racks. I¡¯ll build one more drone for an emergency and then we¡¯ll pick a fight,¡± Watkins decided. His four drones were scouring their side of the compartment for resources. It wasn¡¯t long before he had enough to produce a fifth drone, but the resources gathered after that were spent on repairing the compartment¡¯s deck. The last thing he needed was to leave an opening where more of the mutants could suddenly appear while he was fighting the normal rats. Repairing the deck wasn¡¯t quite as costly as he¡¯d feared. Much of the raw materials needed were harvested from the damaged sections. Still, by the time he¡¯d salvaged half the room, and sealed up any potential points of entry, the total salvage he had on hand was not quite enough for him to build a sixth drone. Available Salvage: 4. Available Biomass: 2. ¡°Let¡¯s use what we know about these rats,¡± Watkins started, outlining his plan for LANI to examine. ¡°They¡¯ll react when a mutant rat moves nearby, and given their earlier actions, they also reacted to my MOBS rat. We¡¯ll set an ambush with the drones, and then send in the mutant to bring the enemy out of hiding. As they move to attack the MOBS, our drones will pounce. When the enemy rats shift their attention to the drones, the mutant will join the fight.¡± ¡°I like it, this will be a big test for our units,¡± LANI replied. Watkins started by sending out the four drones he¡¯d selected for the battle. He broke them up into pairs and had them approach rather close to the storage racks. Once in place, they went still to keep from drawing any extra attention. Next, the mutant rat was sent out. It made it about three steps into the room before the rats responded. Like earlier, three rats appeared from under the storage racks, shrieking at Watkins¡¯ mutant but not moving out from their position. Ordering the mutant forward, Watkins had it stop in between the first pair of drones he¡¯d arranged earlier. Coming this close seemed to do it for the rats and their screeches grew in volume and number. Seven of the huge rats charged from under the storage racks. Watkins watched as the rats passed the first pair of drones, he waited until they neared the second pair before he sprung the trap. Using the screwdriver tool and hammer, the pair of drones closest to the mutant scuttled forward and attacked the approaching foes. The other pair of drones also moved to attack, hitting the fight right when the rats started to react the first pair of drones¡¯ assault. Weaker individually than the mutant rats, these large, but essentially normal rats fell quickly to the assault. Their fate was sealed when the MOBS mutant rat joined the fray. Another two rats charged from under the storage racks, but it seemed like their numbers were depleted from their earlier fight with the mutant and Watkins¡¯ forces seemed to have this fight in the bag. A total of five rats were killed before the survivors fled. Running under the storage racks wouldn¡¯t save them, and one of Watkins¡¯ drones lowered itself and shined a bright light into the cramped, dark space. The survivors, along with a new, even bigger rat, cowered in the far corner. Debris, and even bones of what were likely past victims or fallen allies were strewn about under the racks. Movement near the largest rat turned out to be several younger rats, each about half the size of the adults. These too were aggressive, hissing and screeching at the drones and the mutant rat threatening them. Watkins almost felt bad about attacking the rat nest, but he couldn¡¯t just leave them here to cause problems. He was just about to order his troops to attack when a portion of the ceiling, right above where the rats were cowering, popped out and clanged against the metal racking. Several figures fell out, one of them was a screeching rat. Watkins wasn¡¯t sure what was going on and ordered his forces to fall back. Several more pings were heard as two more bodies dropped from the ceiling. Watkins shifted his point of view to that section of the compartment, watching as several huge bugs fell to the compartment floor. These bugs looked like beetles with an armored carapace and oversized mandibles. They were smaller than the rats, but still far bigger than any type of bug Watkins ever wanted to encounter. The beetles immediately tore into the rats, who turned away from Watkins¡¯ forces to do battle with the new threat. Doing a quick count, it turned out there were six of the beetles, but they seemed unconcerned that they were slightly outnumbered by the rats, not to mention they completely ignored Watkins¡¯ troops who were staying well away from the fracas. ¡°What¡¯s going on here. Why are there so many vermin on my ship,¡± Watkins said in frustration. ¡°I¡¯m not entirely sure, but I think they may have all become stirred up by your core fully activating. At least they are fighting among themselves, I don¡¯t think we¡¯d do well against all of them if they combined forces,¡± LANI said. ¡°This is a starship, not a zoo. Let them fight each other, then we¡¯ll mop up whoever is left,¡± Watkins said. Looking closer at the beetles, he had a good idea of where the insect-like carapace of the mutant rats had come from. Beetles, rats, and mutant combinations of the two. What was next? Chapter 8. Brawl. Chapter 8. Brawl. Their forces backed off, organizing themselves in a line just past the shelving racks. The rats and beetles were really going at it, but it seemed like the beetles had at least a slight advantage. Their armored carapace took a few seconds of gnawing for the rats to crack through, and those seconds usually resulted in another beetle chomping on the rat with its oversized mandibles. Minutes ticked by, and the casualties among the combatants began to mount. Three beetles had fallen, but only the large mama rat and two of the smaller younglings remained. A beetle latched onto the large rat, who returned the favor, the chisel-like oversized teeth of the rat cracking completely through its attacker¡¯s shell, killing the creature. The other beetles took advantage of the opportunity, quicky dispatching the two young rats before turning their mandibles on the sole survivor. A few chomps of their mandibles later, the beetles emerged victorious, though the two surviving bugs sported numerous cracks and gouges in their armored carapace. ¡°Go get ¡®em boys,¡± Watkins ordered. His mutant rat led the way, followed closely by the four drones with their makeshift weapons. The beetles responded immediately, furious that they were interrupted just as they had started to feast on the fallen. The regular rats hadn¡¯t done all that great against the beetles, but Watkins¡¯ mutant was a bit tougher and could weather a beetle chomp or two. Sadly, the mutant fell a moment later as the second beetle ganged up on it, but the four drones had arrived quickly behind the mutant and added their weapons to the fight. Wielding hammers, all the drones went to town on the beetles, cracking through their shells with each blow and in seconds, the last of the vermin in the compartment was dead. It was strangely quiet now, but Watkins didn¡¯t have time to sit around and enjoy it. He had work to do. Two drones were tasked with gathering up the fallen. It should give him plenty of biomass, not to mention that he still had half the room to scour for debris. Watkins worried each time the drones left the fabrication compartment. Their journey to the reprocessor had been fine so far, but it bothered Watkins that he couldn¡¯t see what his units were doing or if their path was safe. ¡°With this surfeit of resources, we should max out your units. What kind of mix do you want between drones and MOBS?¡± LANI asked. According to the system details, Watkins could make a max of ten units. He had five drones, counting the one held in reserve at his core room. To balance things out, Watkins would create five of the mutated rats. ¡°Let¡¯s go half and half. With five each, we should be able to defend ourselves and keep gathering up salvage and repair our ship. Even better, I think I¡¯ll be able to expand to another compartment soon,¡± Watkins explained, noting his control over the fabrication compartment had increased to 71%. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that I won¡¯t be much assistance for the next expansion. The previous one took a lot out of me, and it¡¯ll take me a lot longer to recover,¡± LANI replied. Watkins could hear it in her voice, a weariness that exuded from her, despite her digital existence. Before expanding to the next compartment, Watkins made sure he had maxed out his troops. Resources were good as far as biomass, but salvage was running low. Realizing that the storage racks that were taking up a large portion of the compartment were doing him no good at present, since he had nothing to store, Watkins tasked three of the drones with taking apart and recycling half the room¡¯s storage racks while the other two drones repaired the damaged section of the ceiling that the beetles had invaded from. All he could do now was wait, and Watkins found he was very good at doing so. Something tickled the back of his mind, and he remembered that he wasn¡¯t always this patient when he was still in his human body. He struggled, trying to remember more of who he was and what he¡¯d done, but most of the memories drifted away when he tried to grasp onto them. It was like he was trying to grab water with his hand, an impossible task. In his creation as the ship¡¯s core, Watkins knew that his memories were still stored away somewhere, but it was supposed to be an offsite storage location. He tried to recollect where it was stored, but the knowledge wasn¡¯t to be found at this time. What he could remember were things mostly pertaining to his military service.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°LANI, do you know where my memories are stored? When I was created, I was told that many of them were supposed to be downloaded and stored offsite, so I¡¯m assuming they¡¯re not aboard my ship,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Let me check,¡± LANI said, going quiet for a moment before continuing. ¡°I can see that at the time of your creation, a large data file was sent from your core to the main research station in this system. Once we repair the ship, we should investigate the station. Part of my own functionality was also to be stored there, since not everything could be loaded into the servers they installed in your core room,¡± LANI said. ¡°Thank you, we¡¯ll look together to find what we¡¯re missing of ourselves, but first, we need to get my ship in order,¡± Watkins said, happy to have something to work on which would take his mind away from worry over his lost memories. ¡°I feel that I need to inform you about something else, Watkins, there may be a problem with the station,¡± LANI said. ¡°Problem, what problem?¡± Watkins asked, his concern growing. ¡°It was badly damaged in the attack that spurred me to seek you out. The information on your memories would have been downloaded after we knew about the impending attack, so it would stand to reason that it was stored somewhere secure. We¡¯ll need to search the station to be sure, but you should know that there is a chance our data was damaged, especially given how much time has passed,¡± LANI explained. Watkins felt anger build. He didn¡¯t ask for this, for his life to be taken from him and his mind to be picked apart for some mysterious system to determine what it wanted to keep and what it wanted to throw away. As his anger built, a sense of calm tried to assert itself. Watkins shook it off, the calm was false, it was something artificially created to suppress his human emotions. He fought against the calm, trying to keep himself feeling human for as long as he could, even if feeling human meant feeling angry. In time, he felt the pressure on him to remain calm relent. It had backed down, and Watkins let his anger simmer for a bit longer before he chose to let it slowly fade. His memories might be on that station, and he was going to do everything he could to get them back. The next step was to integrate into a third compartment, but which direction should he go? Toward the bow was where his drones had gone to deliver things to the reprocessor. That should be his next goal, to reach the reprocessor and take it under his protection. ¡°I¡¯m going to begin integrating the next compartment, please don¡¯t disturb me,¡± Watkins said coldly to LANI when he noted that the integration of this compartment had reached 100%. ¡°I¡¯ll try not to interrupt you unless there is an emergency. Captain Watkins, I can sense your anger at me, and I know it is at least partially justified. One thing you should consider in your calculations is the fact that if I hadn¡¯t intervened when I did, you and your entire crew would have perished in the explosion aboard the vessel you were fighting,¡± LANI offered. Memory of that last battle on Earth that he had been involved in had been retained. The system had decided it was worthwhile to keep since it was ship and combat related. Looking over it, he could see that LANI was right. Some unknown ordinance had been sloppily stored on the smuggler¡¯s vessel and the gunfire from the fifty caliber had caused the massive explosion. Still, despite her logic, Watkins couldn¡¯t quite bring himself to completely trust this strange adjunct companion he had been saddled with. He might have died in the explosion, but the only reason she had rescued him was to use him, not to save him out of the goodness of her heart. That brought up another question, one that only LANI could answer for him. ¡°What about my crew?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Your crew, aboard the ship from Earth? They were rescued as well, placed in statis on the station. None were viable for a ship¡¯s core, but it was thought that they might be useful in assisting you with your vessel. Just like with your memories, I can¡¯t guarantee what condition we¡¯ll find them in,¡± LANI explained. ¡°As long as there¡¯s a chance that they¡¯re still alive, we need to get to them. Now before I get distracted again, I need to integrate the next compartment into our ship,¡± Watkins said. Determination burned in him. His crew had been saved and might still be alive. His mind had been downloaded with some knowledge of statis. The data was enough to know that it should have kept his crew safe, completely pausing the passage of time, but there were no guarantees after such a long time had passed aboard the damaged station. Pushing his will outward, Watkins began to infuse himself into the wall of the next compartment. As before, he started at the hatch and worked his way outward. He could more easily feel the microscopic conduits, life support controls, and other devices integrated into the alloy of the walls. His will flowed slowly through the walls as Watkins used the existing devices as a road to follow as he slowly but steadily exerted his control. The process was not an easy one, and LANI wasn¡¯t able to assist him this time. Despite the challenges, he was going to do this. The ship was his, it was part of him, and he would take it back one compartment at a time. And once he had control, he was going to use this ship to rescue his crew and recover his memory. Chapter 9. Reprocessor. Chapter 9. Reprocessor. Watkins felt his will exert itself over the compartment. He wasn¡¯t sure how much time passed, as the efforts took most of his concentration. His new mind was able to process some information as he worked. A recap of where he was with unit production and resources was placed in the corner of Watkins¡¯ vision as he worked. Jesse Watkins. Command Limit: 10/10. Units: Level 0.
  1. Simple repair drone. (5).
  2. Mutated bilge rat. (5).
Resources:
  1. Salvage: 18.
  2. Biomass: 9.
His little army of drones and rats was ready, and after a time, the resources trickling in slowed, then stopped. He couldn¡¯t take his attention off his current task, but Watkins figured his drones had harvested everything they could and were now waiting for new orders. New orders would be ready to go soon, Watkins thought as he finished integrating the next compartment. It felt like something snapped into place as the process completed. Vision over the new compartment spang to life, and it took Watkins a minute to adjust his senses to seeing three compartments at once instead of two. The system confirmed he had found the reprocessor. It was in a state of disrepair, and its status was showing at only 45% functionality. The machine was about half the size of the fabricator and looked like it had been through the wringer. One end had a large opening on top where the raw materials could be placed. Whatever was placed inside would be ground up and separated into its base components, ready for his drones to pick up and deposit into the fabricator. The status of the reprocessor dropped by 1% and Watkins watched as one of the large beetles emerged from a bent panel at the top of the machine. It was carrying a long strand of wiring that it chewed on as it walked. After a few moments, the beetle had stripped all the insulation off the wiring before it headed back to the far corner where a pile of garbage had been carefully arranged. Another beetle scurried out from the garbage pile, which looked like it was their nest. The new beetle headed toward the reprocessor, ready to take another piece of it as a snack. The huge, boxy reprocessor looked like it was built for hard use, but whatever had damaged the ship had also jostled the machine off the deck where it had been mounted. That movement had buckled some of the access panels at the top of the machine, allowing the beetles entry into it like it was their personal 24-hour buffet. This new beetle seemed distracted on its journey, instead of heading directly to the reprocessor, it began to drift toward the far corner of the room opposite the nest. Watkins noticed several beetle shells strewn around the area. His knowledge about beetles was rather lacking, and Watkins wondered if they molted and shed their shells when they grew too big for them. That would explain the mess in the corner. A translucent string seemed to descend from the ceiling of the compartment. When the string touched the top of the beetle¡¯s back, it seemed to stick there. Clacking its mandibles aggressively, the beetle tried to pull away, only to find itself hauled up into the air. Zooming in his view, Watkins could see the faint outline of some other creature hiding up there in the corner of the compartment. He didn¡¯t like what he saw, as the eight legs and bulbous abdomen of a spider were revealed as it went to work on hauling in its prey. The more the spider moved, the more Watkins could make out its shape. The thing was entirely translucent, giving it excellent camouflage when still. It was easily the size of a large dog and was strong enough to haul the beetle up by using its legs to reel in the line it had cast. When the beetle got close to the spider, it gave a frantic last effort to escape, snapping its oversized mandibles at the line holding it. The move didn¡¯t work out like the beetle had hoped, and just like its body, the mandibles were stuck fast to the odd web that the clear spider was using.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. With a slight crunching sound, the spider bit through the hard carapace of the beetle¡¯s back and began feeding. As it fed, Watkins could see it take on the same dull grey color of the fluid it drained from the beetle. Minutes passed as the spider fed, and once it was done, another dried out shell clacked down to the compartment¡¯s floor, where it joined the others. While Watkins had no idea how long the spider had been here, it looked like it had fed on dozens of the beetles given the number of shells on the ground below it. Oddly enough, the spider seemed to turn toward Watkins, like it knew he was observing it. It kept up its stare as it digested its meal and slowly faded into invisibility once more. Now that he knew what to look for, Watkins found that he could spot the faint outline of the spider in its corner. ¡°Just how many different types of vermin do I have to deal with on my ship,¡± Watkins said in frustration. ¡°I suspect this should be the last, though I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯d qualify the spider as vermin. It seems to have helped us by keeping the number of beetles from growing out of control,¡± LANI said. ¡°I don¡¯t know, my memories are mostly gone, but I still remember that I was always creeped out by spiders. I don¡¯t know if my rats and drones would be able to handle that thing with it hiding out in the corner of the ceiling,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Hm, yes, but it appears to be an ambush predator. If you take out the beetles, it will likely lose its food source and then be forced to leave its corner to hunt, which is when your forces can engage it,¡± LANI suggested. ¡°Let¡¯s do that, I¡¯m going to send in the mutant rats and four of our drones to deal with the beetles. We¡¯ll keep one drone in reserve in case something horrible happens, that way, we have someone who can repair and gather up salvage for us if we need to rebuild,¡± Watkins decided. The wall between the fabrication compartment and the reprocessor had both a regular sized hatch, as well as one of the smaller ones that his minions could use. While the beetle nest was huge, Watkins believed their numbers were probably depleted after the fight against the rats earlier, as well as the creepy spider feasting on a stray beetle here and there. His MOBS got into formation, the mutant rats up front, with a line of construction drones following behind. At his command they moved quickly forward, through the hatch and into the new compartment. Watkins watched the nest for signs of activity as his odd combination of troops approached. When they got halfway to the nest, the beetles finally responded. A group of three of them emerged from the nest, clacking their mandibles at the approaching MOBS. Intimidation tactics didn¡¯t work against Watkins¡¯ MOBS, and they just followed their orders fearlessly. His rats charged forward when they were close, leaping to get on top of the beetles. Two mistimed their jumps and found themselves snatched up by beetle mandibles. The others attacked, their mutated teeth cracking into the hard-shelled beetles. It was a brutal brawl and the two sides seemed about even, but a few seconds later, the drones arrived, and with their numbers added to the assault, the beetles were easily mopped up. Watkins had lost two of his mutated rats, but he was already working on producing replacements. With the surviving rats on overwatch, a pair of his drones began to dismantle the beetle nest. It had been built of old bits they had torn off the reprocessor, as well as some thick, burlap-like fabric. Where the beetles had found that fabric aboard was a mystery, but Watkins was more than happy to feed it, and all the other junk nearby, into the reprocessor. He also assigned one of his drones to effect repairs on the huge machine. Thankfully, his connection with the device allowed both Watkins and the drones to immediately know what was wrong with the reprocessor and how to fix it. The repairs and harvesting all the resources would take some time. There was one shock when a final beetle pulled itself from the partially dismantled nest. This beetle had a badly cracked and battered exterior, which meant it was probably a survivor from an earlier brawl with the rats, or a run in with the spider. It was too injured to put up much of a fight, and the drone that discovered it had no trouble putting the monstrous insect down. They also found a half-dozen beetle larvae that were also sent to the reprocessor. The last thing he needed was for some of them to escape and start a new nest somewhere else on the ship. A system message appeared as his drones continued their work. You have unlocked a new schematic. Your fabricator can now create Yendax beetles. Yendax beetles are classified as a Level 0 Mobile Offensive Battle System (MOBS). The cost to create this MOBS is 5 biomass and 1 salvage. It was the same cost as the mutant rats, and having seen both in action, Watkins didn¡¯t think the new design warranted him replacing any of his rats with beetles. ¡°LANI, what is a Yendax beetle?¡± Watkins asked, not finding anything in his database about them. ¡°They¡¯re normally a small pest that is more of nuisance than anything. In large numbers they can pose a danger to a ship¡¯s food stores, but other than that, they are harmless. These have grown much larger than normal, and I think it has something to do with the core energy you¡¯re releasing,¡± LANI said. ¡°So, both the beetles and the rats are common aboard some vessels?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Yes, but everything here is mutated beyond what they should be. I believe that they have all been subsisting on your core energy all these years. That spider is a bit of a mystery. I have no record of anything like it in my database,¡± LANI explained. ¡°Hm, the spider hasn¡¯t tried anything yet, but we will need to deal with it at some point,¡± Watkins said, already making plans on how to kill this latest threat. Chapter 10. Said the Spider to the Fly. Chapter 10. Said the Spider to the Fly. While Watkins had control over the compartment, it would take some time for it to fully integrate. Until it did, he would have to wait for further expansion. At least he had plenty to do as he waited. His drones were hard at work, harvesting the debris in the compartment while they made repairs to its structure and to the reprocessor. So far, the spider was content to remain in its corner of the ceiling. Now that he had enough resources to replace losses, Watkins conducted an experiment. He sent a single drone over to where the fallen husks of the spider¡¯s victims were lying. It was directly under the spider, and he wanted to see if it would respond. He had the drone walk directly under the spider, which didn¡¯t move a muscle or try to drop a web strand onto his minion. The drone went about its task, gathering and compacting the scattered beetle shells until it had them all. It dropped the shells off into the reprocessor to be broken down into biomass. The spider hadn¡¯t reacted to his drone, but what would it do about one of his mutant rats. With more than enough resources flowing in, Watkins felt it fine to risk one of his MOBS to see if it could lure the spider out of hiding. Just like with his drone, the spider refused to react. Maybe later, if he had an open minion slot, Watkins decided he might make a beetle and see if that would prove appropriate bait. His five drones were working quickly, but this compartment was even more of a mess than the previous one. Inside his core, Watkins could see the original overall schematic of his vessel was now available. It wasn¡¯t very detailed but gave him an idea of what his ship was supposed to look like. Having secured three of the larger compartments must have unlocked something within him. His ship consisted of five larger compartments all arranged on a single deck. A passageway ran alongside the main compartments, and on the port side of the passageway were smaller compartments for crew quarters, medical, and an armory. Above and below these compartments was a small crawlspace for repair access that the vermin must have been using to travel about his ship. The outer hull was armored with two inches of strong, layered alloy. Watkins hadn¡¯t extended his reach out that far yet, but from the schematics, he knew it was even more densely packed with various devices than the bulkheads between compartments. Toward the bow of the ship, he had a large empty compartment with no initial obvious use, and the final compartment, comprising the bow of his ship, held the torpedo room. Directly to the aft of his core room was the engine room, which would be his next target for expansion. Data on the torpedoes wasn¡¯t available to Watkins. It, along with many of the other subsystems of his ship, were just blank listings in his database. It was almost like the damage that had occurred to his vessel somehow tore out that knowledge as it ravaged the ship itself. The two torpedo tubes were for longer range firepower, and for medium or close-range work, he had a battery of two main guns. The main guns of the ship were placed in single mount turrets positioned toward the bow. Installed in each turret was a beam weapon, similar to what he remembered as a laser from his previous life. The beams used his core¡¯s power as an energy source and were focused through a 3-inch barrel. The range for the beam weapons was moderate, and they lost their effectiveness at longer ranges. His ability to predict the enemy¡¯s maneuvers over longer distances was problematic as the possible calculations for targeting grew exponentially. When locked on a target, Watkins could burn through most hulls with his main guns. The final weapons on his ship were four single batteries of ? inch point defense lasers. Much less powerful than the main guns, the lasers were used to deal with any small craft or incoming missiles during a fight. The point defense lasers were mounted two to each side of his ship, with one pair near the bow, and one near the aft. ¡°LANI, I have the overall schematic for our ship unlocked,¡± Watkins shared. ¡°Excellent, taking over the third compartment must have unlocked more of your processing power. You might want to check your status to see if there are any other changes,¡± LANI suggested. It was funny, he thought that she would have been able to look it up herself, after all, he had granted her access for that sort of thing. Maybe before she could view anything, Watkins had to have the first look.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Vessel: Pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: Unknown. Core Processing Power: 13%. Core Durability: 100%. Systems:
  1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 41%
  2. Level 0 universal fabricator: 100%.
  3. Level 0 reprocessor: 77%.
Crew: none. Core controlled units: Command Limit: 10/11.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (5).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (5).
Resources:
  1. Salvage: 37.
  2. Biomass: 14.
¡°Well, it seems that both of us aren¡¯t looking too good. Any idea why your server is showing as operating at less than 100%? I get that I¡¯m my ship, and the ship is a mess right now, but I thought the drones had repaired you,¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯ll check, give me a few minutes to run some diagnostics,¡± LANI replied. ¡°Great, let me know what you find. I¡¯m going to produce a beetle with my new command limit point. Also, I have a category called vessel and it says pending. Any idea what that is for?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I believe it the designation of your vessel. That¡¯s odd, it should have been assigned a designation by the station. This was vessel was supposed to be named Ex3, the third of our attempts at creating a vessel that integrated the core system you¡¯re now inhabiting. I suppose you can now name the vessel whatever you wish,¡± LANI replied. When Watkins tried to access the vessel name, he received a system prompt. You must fully repair your vessel to establish a vessel class and designation. ¡°It looks like we¡¯ve got to fix this tub up before we can name her. Also, if this was experimental vessel three, what happened to the other two?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Neither had successful core integrations. The initial designs had several flaws that we worked out with your model. For the first vessel, the core ignited its engines and headed out into deep space. An automated destruct program took care of it and the remains were used to start construction on the second vessel. ¡°As far as the second vessel. Hmm, that¡¯s odd, I have no data on it. Maybe it¡¯s in the data aboard the station, or maybe I¡¯ll unlock it when my server is fully repaired. Now, unless there¡¯s an emergency, I really do need to run the diagnostics. Why don¡¯t you deal with that spider or expand to another compartment while you wait for me to finish,¡± LANI said. Watkins could detect irritation over the interruptions in her voice, so he held his questions for now. His newest minion, a Yendax beetle, was now ready to go. He sent it toward the far corner of the reprocessor compartment, directly underneath where the spider made its nest. To back up the beetle, he had his mutant rats ready to go, just out of range, as well as two of his drones. While he waited for them to get into position, something that LANI said caught his interest. For some reason, when she had told him about the first experimental vessel, his mind became a bit fuzzy. Even now, there was something about it that threw off alarm bells, but he could put his finger on exactly what. Maybe when he was in a bit better shape, he could think further about it. Once again, something triggered in his mind. There was a danger here that his mind couldn¡¯t comprehend. No, it wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t comprehend it, it was that something was actively blocking the thought from forming. Each time he tried to set a reminder, the danger would start to fade from memory, and the set reminder would erase itself from his logs. He was going to have to take other actions to remind himself. Before the beetle did its thing, Watkins had it etch a reminder onto the floor near the reprocessor. As soon as the beetle finished, a drone walked over and repaired the etching. This time, the concern was nothing but a bother, and Watkins figured that he had wasted enough time on some faded memory. With his thoughts refocused, Watkins ordered his beetle in to meet the spider. Watkins watched the beetle approach, and the spider started to drop another line of web down. When the web reached halfway down, it stopped. Maneuvering the beetle directly under the web, Watkins had it patrol around, trying to get the spider to react. He was sure that the beetle, and probably his rats, would get caught in the webbing, but his drones, and their cutting torches should make short work of it. While the spider was distracted by his other MOBS, the drones would scale the walls and attack with their welding units, defeating the spider threat. ¡°Not enemy.¡± The words filled Watkins¡¯ mind, and as he watched, the spider turned toward his core once again, choosing to discard its camouflage and reveal itself as it waited for a reply. ¡°Uh, LANI. I know I wasn¡¯t supposed to disturb you, but this might be an emergency. I think the spider just tried to talk to me,¡± Watkins said. Chapter 11. Extensive Damage. Chapter 11. Extensive Damage. ¡°A spider tried to talk to you? I have no record of audio readings coming from the spider. Please run a diagnostic on your systems, there might be a fault occurring,¡± LANI replied with skepticism. ¡°It didn¡¯t verbalize, it spoke through my systems, here, let me see if I can send you the data,¡± Watkins said, pushing the transcript of the spider¡¯s conversation to her. ¡°Odd, try to communicate with the thing,¡± LANI suggested. Watkins turned his view inward, trying to find the connection the spider had used to speak to him. He followed a presence throughout the compartment, and after concentrating on the corner of the room that the spider had made its home, he could see it. The spider was linked to his compartment through a thin thread of data. It wasn¡¯t a physical connection through the webs it had spun up there, but something deeper. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you can hear or understand me, but I don¡¯t wish to be enemies either. As long as you don¡¯t attack my core or my units, I¡¯ll leave you in peace,¡± Watkins tried to tell the spider. He wasn¡¯t sure how much of what he said got through to the creature, but he thought it raised and lowered its body, as if trying to nod. It didn¡¯t try to speak further and seemed content to stay in its corner of the room. Until it did something hostile, he¡¯d leave it be. ¡°I don¡¯t know for sure, but I think it¡¯ll leave us alone as long as we do the same,¡± Watkins said. ¡°I have my doubts that the spider is that intelligent. The best-case scenario would be to kill it and reprocess the creature to hopefully obtain a MOBS pattern,¡± LANI suggested. ¡°No, it¡¯s a risk we don¡¯t need to take. There¡¯s no way to tell how powerful it is, and I don¡¯t think it harbors any bad intentions toward us. The spider seems content to absorb the energy my core gives off, without attacking my minions or my core,¡± Watkins said. ¡°It¡¯s your ship, just note my previous warnings in your logs,¡± LANI snipped. While it may be Watkins¡¯ ship, he still had a lot of work to do before it was anything more than a drifting hunk of alloy. His drones had swept up the last of the debris and repaired the compartment by the time Watkins was ready to absorb another section of the ship. Keeping with his earlier plan, he began to move in the other direction, at the wall aft of his core room. The process went smoothly, and he found that infusing his will through the compartments felt much more natural. He made it about halfway into the compartment when his ability to push his will further along the walls and deck floor were stopped in their tracks. Annoyed, he tried a different approach, pushing along the top of the compartment. He made even less progress here before he was blocked by something. Despite not having permeated the entire compartment, Watkins felt the familiar click in his mind as he gained access to the limited space that he had been able to control. ¡°Woah, LANI, you need to check this out,¡± Watkins said as his view over the compartment activated. The reason he couldn¡¯t permeate the entire compartment was readily apparent. There was no longer a complete compartment here. Something had shorn off half of the engine compartment, and all that was left were the jagged remains of the engine room. ¡°The damage to our vessel is even more extensive than I¡¯d feared. Maybe the ship was closer to the station than I anticipated when it was struck by the kobold missiles. Either that, or we faced a large collision with some station debris. Either way, you¡¯re going to have a lot of work to do if we want to get our engines operational,¡± LANI said. Watkins noted a hint of fear and concern in LANI¡¯s voice. It wasn¡¯t something that he had felt from her before, and that worried him. Taking a simulated, calming breath, Watkins looked more closely at the damage. Whatever main drives the ship has sported were gone, and with them, their ability to maneuver.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. No, that wasn¡¯t quite right, there was something still there, mounted on the hull under the engine room. Watkins pushed his influence into that area and felt relief as his system identified what he had discovered. Maneuvering thruster, 11%. This maneuver thruster is heavily damaged and currently inoperable. Enough of the original structure remains for it to be repaired. ¡°LANI, I think we got a bit of a break here,¡± Watkins said, pushing the data on the thruster over to his adjunct. LANI was quiet, absorbing the data before responding. ¡°It¡¯s just a maneuver thruster, not a main drive unit, but it¡¯ll give us something to work with. Send a drone to repair it, and we¡¯ll probably get a schematic on the thruster, allowing us to potentially manufacture more of them,¡± LANI said with confidence and hope returning to her voice. Watkins did just that, sending a pair of drones to work on the thruster. Another of the hidden compartment doors opened in the core room and as the drones passed through, the compartment was exposed to vacuum. It didn¡¯t harm Watkins, LANI, or the drones, but there was one of his rat MOBS guarding the core and it was sucked through the compartment and out into the void of space. As it flew out of his influence, Watkins could feel his MOBS dying as the connection to his core faded. Even worse, there was no way to recover the remains for reprocessing. A quick check of his resources showed that Watkins had plenty on hand to construct a new mutant rat MOBS, so he went ahead with the replacement. Oddly enough, the vacuum itself didn¡¯t kill his minion, as it seemed to survive solely on his core energy. Maybe the extreme cold of the void would eventually harm it, but other than that, his minions needed no air to breathe or food to eat. That would cut down on the need to stock food and water supplies on his ship, as his crew of core-controlled units would be relatively self-sufficient. His resources had exceeded what his drones could carry in their bodies, and it was nice to see the storage racks in the fabricator room holding something. The blocks of salvage were rectangular and reminded Silas of gold bars he somehow remembered from his human life. Gold had been precious back in his old world, and those ingots of salvage were just as precious to him now. The biomass was stored on a separate shelf, and it wasn¡¯t nearly as disgusting as he had feared. His reprocessor turned the biomass into solid ingots. It was sort of like huge food bars but speckled with different colored bits. At least it wasn¡¯t some goop which was what Watkins sort of assumed given that most of the biomass he¡¯d obtained came from recently deceased vermin corpses. There was a total of 33 salvage ingots, and 12 of the biomass ones. Even with half of the storage racks in the compartment reprocessed for salvage, the total amount he had on hand looked rather pitiful. As long as there was enough to repair the maneuver thruster, Watkins would be happy. The drones tasked with repair were taking their time, carefully examining the thruster before doing any work. In his mind Watkins could see their progress. The mounting support for the thruster was also damaged, and had to be repaired first, or firing up the thruster would cause it to tear loose from the ship. While the pair of repair drones worked, Watkins tasked another drone with gathering salvage on the partially destroyed compartment. Almost everything that was loose had been sucked out into space, but there were plenty of bent plates and jagged edges that could be shorn off to reprocess. It would benefit him by providing some salvage and allowed his drone to prepare the surfaces for rebuilding at a later date. Work was slow, as Watkins ordered his drones working in vacuum to be especially careful. One misstep would leave his drone helplessly drifting away. His integration of the partially shorn-off engine compartment was progressing much quicker than the intact compartments had. With the thruster repair taking a while, he was soon ready to integrate another compartment of his ship. He started with the next, and last, large compartment fore of the reprocessor compartment. It was becoming easier with each integration, and the process flowed smoothly as Watkins began to exert his control over the new compartment. Just like it did with the engine room, his control came to an abrupt halt about halfway through the compartment. Realizing this was likely due to more extensive damage, Watkins continued to integrate everything he could. With just over half the compartment integrated, it snapped into his control. Once again, the damage was massive. The entire bow of the ship was gone, shorn off just like the engine compartment. Unlike with the engine compartment, Watkins could see something sticking out at the edge of the ship¡¯s hull. He didn¡¯t control the exterior of the ship yet, so he couldn¡¯t tell exactly what it was. From what he could see, there was a huge piece of wreckage impaling his vessel on the port side, right where the smaller ship compartments were supposed to be. Watkins almost drooled as he looked at the wreckage. It had damaged his ship, but from his point of view, it was a massive piece of salvage waiting to be processed. With all that salvage, he may finally be able to restore his ship to a functional vessel. Chapter 12. New Discoveries. Chapter 12. New Discoveries. ¡°LANI, take a look at this. Do you think that¡¯s part of the station we used to be docked to?¡± Watkins asked. He felt LANI¡¯s focus shift from her internal diagnosis to the bow of the ship where they could just catch a partial view of the wreckage impaling them. ¡°Interesting, I believe part of the station is the most likely explanation. We must not have been all that far from the station when the incoming missiles hit. Debris from the destruction would explain why we are so damaged, and why it took so long for you to activate after installation,¡± LANI surmised. ¡°I¡¯m going to focus on integrating the rest of the ship. If I can get that area under our control, we can see how much damage it¡¯s caused and start harvesting the resources needed to repair this place,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Please do, there is much for us to accomplish and the first step in doing that is regaining control over your vessel. I¡¯ll return to my diagnostics, it seems that there are many damaged sectors, but I think that I can at least repair some of the damage that was done,¡± LANI said. Watkins renewed his efforts, noting that full integration of the shorn-off bow of the ship took less time than the similarly damaged engine compartment. It wasn¡¯t just a fluke; he was getting faster with each section of the ship that returned to his control. He was going to work his way inside out, starting with the passage that ran down the length of the ship. The passageway was rather wide for a ship¡¯s corridor, but Watkins knew his measurements were based on wet navy ships from Earth, not starships. For all he knew, this was a tiny space compared to other vessels of its kind. There were plenty of routes for his influence over the vessel to follow. It seemed the corridor was infused with the same tiny devices as the main compartments. He didn¡¯t have a full picture yet, but from what he had absorbed, many of the functions of his ship were imbedded in the vessel itself, and not some separate device like he would have expected. Things like life support, internal scanners, data transfer, power distribution, inertial dampeners, and comms were all integrated into alloys that made up his ship. Integrating the passageway was easy to do in smaller bits as there were heavy, armored hatches that broke it up into distinct sections. All were closed as the ship had tried to keep the atmosphere from escaping when it had sustained the damage. The efforts had failed but must have held up at least long enough for the vermin aboard to acclimate as they began to live off his excess core energy. After the first section of the passageway was under his control, Watkins started an experiment. He had a drone come in and repair a buckled piece of decking. Instead of using the existing, damage plate to repair it, he had the drone completely cut away the section and send it for reprocessing. It would craft a new section of decking from scratch. The piece was about three or four square feet, and he watched the drone work. It was almost like a spider weaving a web as the drone pulled strands of material from the salvage block stored in its body. As the drone worked, Watkins looked closely at the growing deck plate zooming in on it at a microscopic level. It took some time to understand what was going on. His drone was integrating the patch, and at the same time, seeding the new structure with the same tiny devices as the rest of the ship. The results of his little test were a relief for Watkins, he was worried that as his drones repaired his vessel, it would lack the intricate, original construction methods. That wasn¡¯t going to be the case, and his drones were more than capable of rebuilding him as he was supposed to be. With new confidence, he continued to absorb the passageway, Watkins watched the hatches leading off to the smaller compartments on the port side of the vessel. Those compartments would be his next targets after the passageway was done. One interesting thing he noted was the complete lack of visible hatches leading to his core room. There was just the hidden one that linked the core room with the fabricator compartment. Whoever had done the initial design had intended for his core to remain hidden, which was more than fine with Watkins. With the entire passageway under his control, Watkins felt better, his mind clearer. A quick check on his status confirmed that things were improving in more ways than just gaining control over his ship. Vessel: Pending. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: Unknown. Core Processing Power: 19%. Core Durability: 100%. Systems:
  1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 43%
  2. Level 0 universal fabricator: 100%.
  3. Level 0 reprocessor: 81%.
Crew: none. Core controlled units: Command Limit: 11/12.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (5).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (5).
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (1).
Resources:
  1. Salvage: 67.
  2. Biomass: 19.
His core processing power had increased to 19%, but he had a long way to go still. The increase in processing power corresponded with both the speed he could integrate the ship at, and the number of units that he could control. He was up to a maximum of twelve units now and opted for another drone to aid the rebuilding efforts. Watkins then started to work on integrating the smaller compartments, excited to see how much his processing power would improve once the compartments were under his control. Starting at the bow, Watkins was surprised to see that the first port-side compartment looked like a ship¡¯s bridge. There were no humans in his crew, at least not yet, but it was good to see that accommodation had been made in the ship¡¯s design to accommodate them. ¡°LANI, we have the bridge integrated into the ship now. How exactly was a crew supposed to help us when I can control everything myself?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°You are currently able to manage things on your own, but once the ship is fully operational, having additional sapient beings onboard can relieve the stress on your processing power. They can take over some of the more mundane aspects of ship control during high-stress times, such as combat. During normal operations, they can be the face of our communications and not arouse suspicion as to the type of ship that you are. ¡°Finally, they can help with research, once we get that rolling. There should be several computation and data storage machines aboard, and , while they are connected to you, they can also be operated independently by another researcher and help to preserve more of your processing power,¡± LANI explained. ¡°So, retrieving my crew will be helpful in more ways than one,¡± Watkins commented. That remained his next goal after setting his ship in order. There was a bit of fear in his mind as he worried over his crew. Were they still alive? A part of his mind wanted to forget about any emotional attachment to his crew, instead, the other part of him wanted to see them in a pure, logical light. If they survived, so be it, he would utilize them as a resource. If they were dead, he would move on with other plans. The part of Watkins that wanted to retain his humanity railed against his cold, calculating side. Like before, the truce between his halves was held. His logical half expressed that it merely wanted Watkins to consider more than the human element of his decisions. He could live with that, but what he couldn¡¯t live with was abandoning his crew or feeling nothing if they had truly been lost. Turning his attention back to the task at hand, Watkins soon integrated the second compartment. This one was a barracks, or crew quarters of some sort. Bunks and footlockers were in a jumble as whatever had happened to his ship had torn them from their anchor points and tossed them around. Without a crew, the damaged and battered bunks, footlockers, and other furniture were just salvage material waiting to be gathered. It should prove to be enough salvage to repair the damage to several smaller compartments. The next compartment was an armory. Here in the armory, many of the weapons had been more securely attached to their racks, though some had been tossed around and damaged or destroyed. Sidearms, body armor, and odd-looking rifles were of no use now. Watkins had them reprocessed, and took the time to examine them closely as the reprocessor broke them down. His attention to detail must have worked and new knowledge flowed into his database as the system acknowledged what he had learned. You have unlocked new schematics:
  1. 1. Pulse rifle, level 0.
  2. Pulse pistol, level 0.
  3. Light body armor, level 0.
  4. Bladed weapons, level 0.
  5. Shipboard living facilities, level 0.
Watkins knew that weapons of these types didn¡¯t exist on Earth, but he now understood their operation, at least on a basic level. The pulse weapons fired an intense beam of energy for a short duration with each press of the trigger. Power packs inserted like the magazine of a regular firearm provided the energy needed, and the pistol versions were less powerful than the rifles. The beams should burn through almost anything with enough hits, though the body armor he now could build would mitigate the damage somewhat. In addition to protection against kinetic projectiles, such as bullets, the armor would vaporize when hit with beam weapons, creating a small puff of particles that helped to diffuse the beam. For his bladed weapons, they were not much different than the ones he¡¯d used all his life. These, however, were made of better alloys and could be honed to a sharpness not found on any knife or sword on Earth. As for the shipboard living facilities, it meant he could recreate the bunks, footlockers, and armory fixtures when they eventually were needed. Watkins was more interested in the weapons and wanted a way to further research and integrate these weapons into his MOBS. That was beyond him for now, but there was a long future ahead of Watkins, if he could get his ship working properly. Chapter 13. New Compartments. Chapter 13. New Compartments. ¡°Watkins, I¡¯ve done all I can for my systems., and my processing power is now at 49%, but to go further, I will need your assistance,¡± LANI said, distracting Watkins right before he began integrating the next compartment. ¡°What can I do to help?¡± Watkins asked. If he could help repair LANI back to full efficiency, she might be able to assist him further. ¡°Nothing at this time, but as your processing power improves, we can see about creating research modules. Your drones will be able to do more for us both if we can upgrade them past level zero,¡± LANI said. ¡°What are these levels, and how far do they go?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°The levels are just our system¡¯s way of quantifying how effective something is. It encompasses many aspects of something like a repair drone, but a drone that is level one or two would be capable of autonomously making more intricate repairs, as well as likely strengthening itself against damage,¡± LANI said. ¡°Good to know, and from what you said before, you have a schematic for one of these research modules?¡± Watkins tried to confirm. ¡°Yes, though you¡¯ll have to grow in power before you¡¯re able to construct one. You¡¯re making good progress, so continue what you¡¯re doing. While I¡¯ll refrain from overexerting myself, I can focus some of my processing power to assist you in assimilating the rest of our ship,¡± LANI advised. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯ll take all the help I can get,¡± Watkins said as they started on the next compartment. He could feel LANI help, nudging him in the right direction and smoothing the path as he integrated the compartment back into his ship. Like with the fore and aft compartments, this one was heavily damaged, and the entire port side of the compartment was exposed to vacuum. When his control snapped into place, Watkins got a look at his next find. The debris that had impaled the ship entered through the hull here, and into the next compartment aft. Most of the loose debris in the compartment had long ago drifted off into space, but shoved up against the bulkhead was the aft part of a smaller vessel. ¡°I believe that was our ship¡¯s boat, and this was our main airlock hatch and hangar. Try to save as much as you can as we clear away the damage. Other than the docking hatch on the bow of the ship, this was the only way to move personnel and supplies onto the ship. Looking around, Watkins could see that the hatchway leading from this compartment was much larger than the others, which made sense if they were moving pallets of supplies through it. ¡°Any idea what it is that hit us?¡± Watkins asked. The hunk of debris impaling his vessel resembled a large cylinder with jagged broken bits that had stabbed through the hull. ¡°Give me a minute, I¡¯m trying to match it up with anything in the database,¡± LANI said. ¡°It looks like it took out this compartment and the next one down the line. Once we integrate the next compartment, we can see about harvesting this hunk of salvage,¡± Watkins said. ¡°I think I¡¯ve got it; it looks like a portion of the boarding arm from the research station,¡± LANI said. ¡°That would be consistent with the events that happened. That part of the station was close to where our ship docked, so it would be more likely to hit us than some random debris floating around the system. Do you think there¡¯s anything important in there that might help us?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°No, other than salvage, I don¡¯t believe we¡¯ll find anything of import. It was merely a boarding ramp, and the connection portion had been torn off so we can¡¯t even study that to improve the boarding hatch when we get around to creating one,¡± LANI said with some disappointment. ¡°Let¡¯s get that next compartment integrated and we¡¯ll see about harvesting the debris,¡± Watkins said. It was taking almost no time now between integrations as his ship rapidly incorporated each new section into his vessel.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. The next compartment was another barracks area, almost identical to the first he¡¯d discovered. It was also torn open by the station debris impact, and he could tell the compartment behind it was also compromised. The damage was even more extensive than he had first thought. In the next compartment he found something interesting. This one turned out to be their medical bay. Like with the hangar and barracks next door, it was torn open and wedged with part of the station debris. Some of the medical equipment survived the ordeal, and Watkins had one of his drones take it apart and carefully reprocess it so he could recreate the device. You have unlocked new schematics:
  1. Medpod, Level 0.
Every little bit helped, and with this section of his ship under control, he could start harvesting the station wreckage. Four drones were assigned the task of securing and harvesting the debris. It would require some careful planning to make sure none of it drifted off while they were working to cut it down into manageable chunks. His analysis of the drones showed that they should be up to the task, though there was a small chance of failure and the loss of both debris and some of his drones. After the Med Bay, the next compartment as he moved aft was a Combat Information Center (CIC). Inside the relatively intact compartment were several workstations that resembled the bridge layout. Instead of controlling the ship from here, the crew could control the ship¡¯s weapon systems. As with the bridge, the CIC had controls for a human, or some other humanoid species, crew to operate. Watkins could override everything, of course, but it was yet another reminder that a full crew could take some of the burden in dangerous encounters. This compartment, and the original armament of the ship brought up a question that had been bugging Watkins. ¡°LANI, why is this essentially a warship if it was supposed to be some experimental vessel?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°While this was an experimental vessel, it was indeed intended as a testbed for weapons systems. You can control them with greater precision than a human crew, and that was one of the things we had hoped to examine. Space, both out here in the fringe systems, and in the more populated areas, is a dangerous place. Advancements in science have not mitigated the conflicts between the various species. ¡°For the most part, the council keeps the various member species from causing too much harm, but they are allowed to resolve most issues among themselves,¡± LANI explained. ¡°Is that why the council exists, to protect the majority of the species?¡± Watkins asked, beginning to think of the council as more of a galactic version of the United Nations, and from the danger and level of conflict in space, it seemed this council was about as ineffective as the actual UN in keeping the peace. ¡°Peacekeeping and preventing the extermination of species is not its primary purpose though. The primary purpose is to monitor, contain, and discover¡­¡± LANI paused, and Watkins could feel confusion through their connection. ¡°I seem to not recall our main purpose. That data is in part of the damaged section of my servers. There are also files missing that might explain why this research station was placed in an uninhabited and rarely trafficked section of space. Hopefully, we can recreate the missing data once we have access to the research station,¡± LANI said. ¡°Very well, let¡¯s continue to integrate the rest of the ship and then try to find this research station that we¡¯re banking so many of our hopes on,¡± Watkins said. Something about the missing data in LANI¡¯s servers seemed odd to Watkins, but he could sense no duplicitous thoughts through their connection. He genuinely believed that LANI¡¯s data was truly lost through damage. Still, something about it unsettled him and he would make a point to keep a close eye on things when they finally did locate the station. After the CIC, the next compartment turned out to be a jackpot. It was a research lab and though part of the outer wall had been damaged, there in the middle of the deck, was a large workstation with what looked like a miniature version of LANI¡¯s server connected to it. ¡°That¡¯s it, Watkins, you¡¯ve found a research module! Have your drones bring it somewhere safer, maybe our compartment or near the fabricator,¡± LANI said excitedly. ¡°This is great, I¡¯m going to have it brought to our compartment, I want to get a close-up view of how this thing works,¡± Watkins said. It was their only research module, and it could be the key to so many things. All he had to do now was to bring it somewhere safe, repair it, and put it to work. ¡°Do you think the drones can make it work?¡± Watkins asked. From his initial observation, it didn¡¯t appear seriously damaged, but the housing had been battered by debris and part of it had torn away. He had to believe that something intended to work on a starship that would likely see combat was durable enough to resist some battering about. ¡°It should be fine, and if not, I still have the schematics in my database we can use once your processing power improves,¡± LANI replied. It seemed like things were looking up. He had a supply of resources to harvest, a research module, and soon, he¡¯d have control over his entire vessel. Chapter 14. Void Beast. Chapter 14. Void Beast. Watkins watched carefully as the drones were pulled off salvage duty to help safely transport the research module to the core room. It took his drones a while to dismount it from the research lab floor. After that, they had to physically move it through the ship. Hatchways were a bit of a struggle as they weren¡¯t mounted flush to the deck and there was a small, five-inch frame that the drones had to step over. He almost ordered one of his rats or the beetle to be reprocessed so he could control an extra drone to help, but the crew of six drones that he had on hand seemed to manage things. It wasn¡¯t until the research module was placed on the deck of his core room that Watkins felt some relief. Five of the drones went back to salvaging the station wreckage, while the last drone went to work on repairing the research module. ¡°LANI, how can my drones repair the research module, when they¡¯re only level zero? I¡¯m not going to complain, but I would have through they would have needed more upgrades to work on something that complex,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°For repairs, they can often handle more complex items than their level would suggest. Creating one from scratch isn¡¯t possible at this time, but with most of the device there to examine and compare while they work, they can get it to a functional state. That doesn¡¯t mean the research module will function at full capacity, and the makeshift repairs the drone is working on will surely hamper the module¡¯s effectiveness,¡± LANI explained. That was a logical enough explanation, and as much as Watkins wanted to start researching upgrades, he still had the rest of the ship to integrate. His work wasn¡¯t going to stop with the integration, he had the whole bow and aft engine sections of the ship to rebuild. As for the interior of the ship, there was one last compartment to integrate. It was the furthest aft, save for the engine compartment. As he pushed his will into the compartment, Watkins felt his control rapidly spread over it. This was the fastest he had integrated a compartment so far. When total control snapped into place over the compartment, he realized that while he was getting faster at his efforts, this compartment was the smallest one they¡¯d explored so far. It was a galley, and it had been spared the worst of the destruction. The compartment had retained its hull integrity, so most of the items inside were still functional. There was a small food and drink fabricator that worked off biomass cubes. The fabricator had suffered minor damage, and his drones could have it fixed up without too much trouble. For now, they had no living crew, so the galley renovations could wait a bit. There was a nice discovery inside the compartment. It had been fully stocked for the potential first voyage of the ship. Nearly a hundred biomass bricks were stacked in the various storage cabinets, and the food fabricator itself had eight loaded into it that were ready to be used. Watkins put the galley repairs low on the priority list, but did have recovery of the biomass bricks set a bit higher. He wanted most of them safely stored in the fabrication compartment with the others. He decided to leave in place the biomass bricks that were already loaded in the food fabricator in case his crew were hungry whenever they eventually made it back to the station to revive them. With the last internal compartment under his control, Watkins examined his status. He could feel the improvement, but it was always nice to see it quantified. Vessel: Pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: Unknown. Core Processing Power: 24%. Core Durability: 100%. Systems:
  1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 43%
  2. Level 0 universal fabricator: 100%.
  3. Level 0 reprocessor: 81%.
Crew: none. Core controlled units: Command Limit: 12/13.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (6).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (5).
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (1).
Resources: Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
  1. Salvage: 87.
  2. Biomass: 89.
He had bumped his processing power to 24%, still not even close to what he was capable of, but enough to boost his command limit up to 13. With an extra slot open, he ordered a new drone to be produced, giving him a total of seven. The new drone would be ordered to work on the reprocessor before helping with the salvage operations. The reprocessor was still at 81% and was suffering from internal damage that the beetles feeding off it had caused. With so much salvage being pulled from the wreckage imbedded in his ship, Watkins wanted to make sure he wasn¡¯t wasting any due to inefficiency while reprocessing it into usable material. There was a lot of the ship that he needed to rebuild, and every ingot of salvage that he could eke out of the reprocessor was crucial to his survival. ¡°LANI, I¡¯m going to start working on integrating the hull. We need to have total control over the ship before I begin major repairs and rebuilding,¡± Watkins said. ¡°That is a logical approach, though I will try to get your attention once the research module is functional. Which research options do you wish to pursue first?¡± LANI asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet. I think we need to see what we find on the hull. Maybe there is a major component that we¡¯re missing or that needs to be upgraded,¡± Watkins said. In truth, despite the information in his database, there was much about the ship he didn¡¯t know about or understand. By integrating the entire vessel, he¡¯d have a better feel for it, as the ship was essentially his body. Once fully his, Watkins would know what was missing. His first efforts at integrating the hull were slow. He started on the hull directly over his core room, using structural braces to reach the exterior. It might have been faster to start where the hull was breached, but for some reason, Watkins felt that having the hull over his core compartment secured would help to protect him. He was also slowed by the rather unique makeup of the hull. Internally, the ship¡¯s compartments were heavily reinforced and essentially armored boxes inside the ship, but the hull itself was on a whole other level. Only two inches thick, the armored hull possessed far more integrated devices than the walls of the internal compartments had. For a while, Watkins pondered over their use, but eventually, as the integrated sections of his hull integrated with his core, Watkins could tell what he was looking at. The most complex components turned out to be his ship¡¯s sensors. He¡¯d already integrated with the internal sensor devices that gave him vision over the compartments, but these were much more powerful and numerous on the armored hull. His armor was also oddly complex, and it had several kinds of protection built into it. When hit by a beam weapon, like a laser, the hull would fragment into tiny particles instead of melting. These particles would remain near the hull for several seconds, dispersing the power of further attacks in the same location. His database flagged it as ablative armor and it would weaken any energy weapons fired at his ship. The alloy of the armor itself was a weave of metals and ceramic, which would both protect from kinetic energy, and shield from any harmful radiation or similar energies they might run into. All in all, it was advanced protection, and he confirmed with LANI that his armor was another experimental component of his ship, and more advanced than even most warship designs. The only drawback was that his hull could only mount about two to three inches of armor over his ship. It seemed that the processing power of his core would limit his ability to integrate more hull material or expand the vessel¡¯s size. Additional protection would be offered by a shield generator unit that would block any damage up to its load limitation. Sadly, he couldn¡¯t detect any shield generator units currently functioning on his ship. Watkins would need to integrate further forward on the ship as, according to his schematics, the shield generators were wing-like projections just aft of the torpedo launchers at the bottom of the hull. He¡¯d get there eventually but given that they were projections off the hull, there was a good chance that the debris had destroyed or at least heavily damaged them. As more of the exterior of the ship came under his control, Watkins could feel himself improve, and his core processing power climbed faster than it had done with the interior compartments. After a bit, he¡¯d take a break to see if there was a corresponding increase in his command limit. More drones working would always be a good thing. Almost as if he¡¯d jinxed himself, Watkins could feel first one, then a second drone drop from his control. He paused his hull integration, and in the moments that it took him to solidify his hold over what he¡¯d already integrated, another drone was gone. With his attention back on the interior of the ship, he looked for the problem. It was probably part of the debris breaking loose and dragging his drones along for the ride. While he searched for the issue, he ordered three replacements to be fabricated. It would take some time for them to get built, but his total salvage had gone up considerably since he¡¯d started working on the hull. In addition, he¡¯d oddly gained a few bricks of biomass somewhere along the way. ¡°Watkins, look, there on the station debris, I see atmosphere venting,¡± LANI said. ¡°We lost three drones as well, what¡¯s happening?¡± Watkins asked. Where his drones had been pulling salvage off the station debris, he could see a dark opening. The drones had breached the exterior of the station debris in that spot, and a few wisps of atmosphere were being pulled from the now-exposed interior of the station debris. Something else pulled itself from inside the ruined section of the station. It was a living creature, but like nothing Watkins had ever seen. Even looking at it through his sensors, the image seemed to roil and shift. Its body was a greyish-green mass of flesh, and from this ball of flesh an ever-changing assortment of limbs sprouted. ¡°No, Watkins, this isn¡¯t good. I think we¡¯re in really big trouble here,¡± LANI said. Watkins could hear the fear in her voice as they watched the creature pull itself from the debris and crawl its way onto his ship. Chapter 15. Organizing Defenses. Chapter 15. Organizing Defenses. ¡°You seem to know what that is, LANI, how do we stop it,¡± Watkins asked as one of the surviving drones on salvage duty attacked the hostile organism. It stabbed with the screwdriver and latched onto one of its limbs with the other arm. Seeming to ignore the damage his drone was doing to it; the creature shifted a limb that looked like a human foot into a clawed hand that tore off the drone arm that was holding it. Watkins¡¯ drone wasn¡¯t going to go down without a fight, and it ignited the welder inside one of its legs and burned into the body of the invader. The fire seemed to make the creature recoil, and the drone took advantage of its distraction to stab again with the screwdriver. A pair of tentacular limbs wrapped around the drone, slowly constricting it. Watkins could see the metal body of his drone crush like an empty soda can. The drone got a few more seconds of burning done on the monstrous invader¡¯s shifting body before something critical was damaged, and his drone went offline. ¡°That is one of the secondary issues we were studying out here, Captain Watkins, a creature of the void,¡± LANI said. ¡°Like the void of space? It¡¯s some kind of space monster, not something from a planet? More importantly, what¡¯s the easiest way to kill it?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°No, from a place we called the void, not the emptiness of space. Here, in this system, we detected an anomaly, small areas with impossible readings. It was almost like a jump point was forming, but the energy was off, and ever-changing. Eventually, a tear in space occurred, and in the void beyond that tear, things like that abomination entered the system. ¡°We sent one of the pair of patrol boats we used to have in the system to examine the creatures, but they were hostile and attacked. The vacuum of space seemed to harm them, but that didn¡¯t stop them from attacking our boats. Lightly armed, one boat was boarded before the second was able to burn down the creature with a point defense laser. ¡°This thing, I think, is the sample we took of the monster before it completely dissipated after being killed. The stasis it was held in must have failed at some point and it¡¯s been inside that chunk of station wreckage, probably subsisting on your core energy this whole time, just like the vermin have been,¡± LANI explained. ¡°Can my MOBS and drones take it out?¡± Watkins asked as the monster cast aside the crushed drone and began to pull at the sealed hatchway to that compartment. ¡°We have a chance, the sample is not that large, and if you gather your forces in one group, you can probably overwhelm it. If we fail, though, there won¡¯t be an opportunity for a second attack,¡± LANI said. ¡°We¡¯re down four drones now, let¡¯s see how long it takes that thing to break inside. Hopefully the fabricator will have time to rebuild or losses. For now, we¡¯ll gather everything in the fabrication room, and try to make a stand there. If the monster decides to go for my core directly, our forces will still be close at hand, and any reinforcements were able to create can join us right away,¡± Watkins said. While they watched the monster struggle with the hatch, he checked on his command limit. He¡¯d integrated part of the hull, which should give him more to work with. Core Processing Power: 36%. Command Limit: 10/15.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (4).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (5).
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (1).
¡°We have a few new unit slots open to fill as well. You know this thing LANI, should we stick with drones, or one of our other MOBS?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°The void creature is biological for the most part and will heal itself if we allow it time to kill and absorb your MOBS, so I¡¯d stick with drones for now, it can¡¯t absorb non-living matter. Your MOBS can join the fight after the drones have engaged it. Hopefully our forces will dish out more damage than the creature can heal from its absorption ability.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Queuing up as many drones as his command limit could handle, Watkins watched the monster work. It tried various types of limbs, eventually going with more tentacles as it forced the hatch to open a small crack. Sadly, the hatches to those compartments were damaged and Watkins couldn¡¯t seal them up as tightly as he would have liked. Even with that limitation, Watkins pushed power into the hatch mechanism, trying to force it closed. The creature¡¯s size was hard to judge, as it was constantly shifting its body shape around. If Watkins had to guess, he figured it had about the same overall mass as a small cow or horse. He also noted something odd about it. Just like his bio-based minions, the monster didn¡¯t seem to suffer from a lack of atmosphere. In another similarity, it seemed the cold did affect it, at least to a minimal degree. Some bits of the monster were constantly flaking off, turning into vapor after leaving its body. ¡°LANI, what with the vapor stuff that thing is giving off?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°The void creatures are unnatural; they have no weak points or critical organs to destroy. Instead, when they take damage, they lose part of their overall mass. If they take too much damage, the entire mass will wither and go into a self-induced stasis of sorts. ¡°I doubt the cold will be enough to kill it, but it will slowly whittle away at its mass, giving our forces a bit of an edge,¡± LANI explained. Watkins lost the test of strength, and the monster soon pushed the hatchway open wide enough to shove its mass through. Once inside, it was met with closed and dogged hatches in its section of the corridor. The only other hatches led to the armory and the reprocessor. With eyes constantly forming and re-absorbing, it was hard to tell where its attention was focused, but Watkins could sense that it was after him, after his core¡¯s energy. It ignored the armory door, and instead threw itself against the hatch leading to the reprocessor. This hatch wasn¡¯t damaged, but Watkins still had trouble keeping the monster contained. The locks on the hatch, a pair of ? inch metal pins at the top and bottom of the door began to strain and bend. Checking on the fabricator, Watkins watched a newly produced drone walk to join the others gathering in the room. Since he¡¯d been struggling with the monster, a total of two replacement drones had been produced, and another one was just starting the construction process. Pushing all his efforts into the hatch, Watkins tried to stall the creature for as long he possibly could. If it got in before more of his reinforcements were ready, their odds of survival were rather poor. It took a few minutes for the thing to finally best Watkin¡¯s efforts, and push the hatch open enough to slither inside. He was worried that the void creature would tear apart or damage the reprocessor, but it seemed completely focused on getting to Watkins¡¯ core. It only took the monster a few moments to zero in on the hatch between the reprocessor compartment and the fabrication compartment where his forces were organizing. The delay at the reprocessor compartment hatch had gained Watkins enough time for another drone. That gave him a total of seven, and another was about halfway done being constructed. He would max out at nine, and had his available mechanical troops line up around the hatchway between the reprocessor and fabricator compartments. He was planning on the monster having to squeeze through a small gap, right into the cutting torches, hammers, and screwdrivers of his drones. If it managed to force its way inside the compartment, Watkins would order his MOBS to join in the fight. After that, all he could do was watch as the battle for his survival played out in front of him. Watkins pushed his focus on resisting the void creature as it tried to force open the last hatch between it and his forces. One part of his attention was latched onto the fabricator, noting that another drone was almost ready to join his defenses. This hatch was like other internal hatches, and while it was closed, the seals weren¡¯t intact from the damage the ship had suffered so long ago. He was fighting a losing battle, and Watkins felt the pins securing the hatch slowly bend. A quick count showed that he now had eight drones waiting around the hatchway, and the last that his command limit would support was over halfway complete. The five mutant rats and his single Yendax beetle waited just past his mechanical defenders. As the pins securing the hatch snapped and the door started to slide open, his drones fired up their cutting torches and prepared to fight. Like before, the void creature snaked a tentacle in to try and force the hatch open further. This time, his minions were ready, and three torches cut into the invading limb. The void creature didn¡¯t make any noise, but Watkins could see it recoil from the damage it was taking. A good, foot long section of tentacle was severed and another of the drones began to hammer and stab at it, making sure it dissipated into vapor rather than reattach to the monster¡¯s body. In a fit of rage, the monster hurled itself into the hatchway, recoiling a second time as more drones were able to reach and attack it. They had damaged it, but only a small portion of its overall mass had been destroyed. It readied itself for another attack when the monster suddenly stiffened and began to flail about while forming different types of limbs. ¡°Oh dear, I didn¡¯t expect that,¡± LANI said, shifting Watkins¡¯ attention to the compartment ceiling. Chapter 16. Unexpected Ally. Chapter 16. Unexpected Ally. Watkins could see it now, the thin, nearly transparent strand of web that the spider had dropped before to snag the Yendax beetles. The spider had moved from the far corner of the reprocessing compartment and made its way unnoticed to the ceiling over the hatchway. Its web had landed on the main mass of the void creature and held it fast. More limbs flailed around, and the void creature managed to latch two more onto the thin, but surprisingly strong and sticky web. Not seeming to care that it was stuck, the creature began to pull on the line, and the spider was barely holding onto the ceiling with all eight legs dug into the metal. While it was the size of a large dog, the spider was heavily outweighed by the void creature, and it was only a matter of time before the monster pulled the spider from its perch. ¡°Attack, hit the thing while it¡¯s distracted!¡± Watkins ordered, taking advantage of his distracted foe. The eight drones scrambled into the reprocessing compartment and attacked with every weapon at their disposal. The void creature tried to shift part of its attention to the attacking drones, but when it weakened its pull on the spider, their arachnid ally pulled harder on the strand of web. Each pull from the spider threw off one of the void creature¡¯s attacks, keeping Watkins¡¯ drones in the fight longer than they would have otherwise been able to. A ninth, and final, drone emerged from the fabricator and charged toward the fight. Distracted by attacks now from all directions, the void creature was still a powerful threat, and succeeded in grasping and crushing first one, then a second drone. Watkins still had his fabricator queued up to make drones whenever there was enough command limit for them, so as soon as one fell, a new one began production. It was now or never, so all his forces were ordered to attack, the five mutant rats and his one Yendax beetle scurrying over the hatchway to claw and bite at the foe. As LANI had warned, a rat was quickly snatched up by a freshly created limb on the void creature. The mutant rat was durable and managed to bite at the limb a few times before its body was crushed. Instead of tossing aside the dead rat, the void creature pulled it into its body, slowly absorbing its biomass to add to its own. Despite the snack, Watkins¡¯ forces were making headway, the void creature was shrinking under the relentless assault. A few minutes passed and it was now half the size it had originally been. Even better, its attacks and movements became more sluggish, as if losing so much of its mass seemed to hamper its function. Another rat, and the Yendax beetle fell prey to the enemy, but the void creature was fading fast. After a few minutes, and more casualties, the void creature collapsed. Much of the creature dissolved away, but a small chunk, about the size of a cat, remained unmoving on the deck. ¡°LANI, should we try to reprocess that thing?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°No, our systems cannot handle it, the genetic makeup is indecipherable, and it doesn¡¯t contain the same base elements that our universe does. In fact, a few of our experiments on the sample ended up damaging the equipment. I¡¯d say, burn it down to nothing and get back to harvesting the real salvage,¡± LANI suggested. Watkins ordered the surviving drones to follow her instructions, and began to burn away the last of the creature. ¡°Thank you, spider. I don¡¯t know if we could have done this without your help,¡± Watkins said over the loudspeaker into the reprocessor compartment where the spider had returned to its favorite corner. Sure, it would have died without Watkins¡¯ energy to sustain it, but he hadn¡¯t suspected that the spider was smart enough to throw in and join the fight right at the best possible time. Hopefully, in the future, they might find some way to better communicate with the creature. In the aftermath of the battle, Watkins was left with five undamaged drones, two that needed repairs before they would be fully functional again, and the mutant rat MOBS.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°LANI, you said that this was just a piece of a larger creature, and the bigger one attacked a ship. How do they move through space, and how do they fight against a ship? Even better, if the extreme cold of space damages them, why didn¡¯t you just back off and let it die?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I only retain snippets of data on this experiment, the system focused on infusing me with data that would prove helpful in establishing you as the core of this vessel, and most of what else there has been pared away so I could fit in the server. ¡°What I can tell you is that the larger these things get, the more powerful they become, and the more abilities they can command. The one we fought had formed a hull of sorts and functioned more like a ship than anything else. I¡¯m not sure how it does that, only that we found it had altered its form to match its environment,¡± LANI explained. ¡°Thanks for sharing what you can, maybe we¡¯ll have more data when we make it to the research station,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m hopeful that we¡¯ll both find what we¡¯re looking for there,¡± LANI said. Watkins thought she sounded odd, like she was torn between sadness and excitement over what they¡¯d find at the station. His MOBS hadn¡¯t been all that effective against the void creature, so he would focus on more drones for the time being. If the threats changed, or a slew of regular vermin spewed out of the station wreckage, maybe he could change things up. The focus now would be on repairing and rebuilding his ship. One drone was to continue working on the research module, while the others would repair any damage they sustained, clean up the battlefield, then return to salvage operations. As new drones were produced in the fabricator, they would join in the repair and salvage efforts. While his team went to work, Watkins went back to his task of integrating the entire hull of his ship. Progress was slow but steady, and since his core compartment was toward the aft of the ship, he worked in that direction first. While he worked, Watkins considered his new existence. He was an experimental design, and that meant that many parts of him would need further research and upgrades. The limits of his processing power were also going to hold him back. He couldn¡¯t make the ship any larger than it was, and unless the research modules were somehow able to research better processing power for his core, he was going to be limited by what he had originally had. It was a bit of a conundrum, expanding to the hull granted him more control over his core, but it also had him racing toward his limits. Watkins knew that he had a way to go before he maxed out his processing power, but the overall size of his ship told him where those limits would be. Toward the aft of the ship, Watkins found another of the maneuver thrusters. It was damaged and offline but was more or less complete. Between this one, and the one they¡¯d already discovered, Watkins was certain he could repair them and finally have a way to maneuver. His main drives were still a mystery, and he¡¯d have to recreate them from the data inside his core, any data that LANI might offer, and some work by the research module. Another discovery was found at the port aft section of his ship, mounted above where the galley compartment was, he found a weapon. It was one of his point defense lasers, and from its condition, it was nearly operational. Watkins pushed his control into the weapon, finding it was offline, but needed only minor repairs to be functional once more. Though gathering salvage and rebuilding the missing parts of his ship were the most important tasks, Watkins redirected one of his drones to repair the point defense laser. He didn¡¯t know what else might be lurking in the darkness of space, but whatever was out there, he didn¡¯t want his ship to be completely defenseless. A single weapon designed to take out missiles and small craft wasn¡¯t much, but it was better than waiting for a foe to blast him into pieces or board him when he only had simple drones and MOBS to defend against boarders. The entire aft of the ship was now under Watkins¡¯ control, and he continued his efforts to integrate the hull, moving slowly toward the bow. A quick check showed that Watkins had also freed up some processing power as he integrated more of his ship. Core Processing Power: 41%. Command Limit: 15/16.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (12).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (3).
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (0).
Queuing up another drone, Watkins had it work on the maneuver thrusters. He wasn¡¯t sure if it could repair them completely, but hopefully most of the work could be done before he needed to research further repairs. His salvage efforts were moving along at a steady pace, and Watkins was happy to see the blocks of salvage material were beginning to stack up on the storage racks near the fabricator. He was going to need a lot of it if he wanted to rebuild the missing sections of his ship and prepare it to get underway. There was a station out there, a station that possibly held both his memories, and his crew. Chapter 17. Where are We? Chapter 17. Where are We? Watkins¡¯ work on integrating the hull continued. He found that as his core processing capacity expanded, he could keep track of the ship while maintaining enough focus on integration for it to continue at the same pace. He was happy to see the drone working on repairing the reprocessor had completed its efforts, and the reprocessor was showing 100% efficiency. At a level of only zero, Watkins knew there was a long way for the device to go as far as improvements went. With only a single research module, it was going to take a while to get around to everything he needed to research. A quick check of the drone working on those repairs showed it was progressing well, but the going was slow based on the complexity of the device. Another benefit of integrating more of his hull was the expansion of his sensor data. He was not only gaining data passively through the sensors, but he also knew he could activate them to greatly expand his range when there was a the need. Memories of his military experience on Earth reminded Watkins that going active on his sensors was a lot like a sub using its active sonar. Banging away with its active sonar would make a sub easily detectable long before the sonar returns would reveal the target it was looking for. His sensors were infinitely more complex than a sub¡¯s sonar, but the principle of how to employ them in a hostile situation was the same. It was odd, the system that had created him tried to integrate his military knowledge into something that meshed with how his new ship performed. He remembered that when the system was scanning him for selection, it had stopped at many of his military memories, prioritizing them over anything else. His military history work was also kept, though the system had designated it as a lower priority than his active-duty experiences. His personal memories were the lowest on the totem pole and had mostly been taken from him and stored somewhere else. Watkins also knew his crew was supposed to have been collected as well, but what form would he find them in? Had they been transformed into a core like he had, or had the system somehow recovered their bodies as well? LANI interrupted his introspection with some excellent news. ¡°Captain Watkins, the research module is ready. It¡¯s not functioning anywhere near its intended capacity, but we¡¯re starting with almost nothing, and even basic research is useful for our purposes,¡± LANI said. ¡°Great news, how do I get started?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°The drone should have activated the hardline connection to the module, so you can focus and interact with it directly. I currently have no permissions on the unit, so its control is totally yours. Of course, I can monitor progress and notify you when the module has reached a milestone. I can also assist it by adding some of my processing power to the task, but my help will be limited by my own degraded condition,¡± LANI said. ¡°I¡¯ve already got a plan for our upgrades. First off, we need a way to upgrade our drones so they can perform more complex repairs,¡± Watkins said. He had a feeling that even after he fully integrated his hull, his processing power still wouldn¡¯t be at 100%. He¡¯d need the rest of the ship¡¯s systems upgraded and repaired to unlock his full potential. ¡°That is good, but even with upgraded drones, their use will be limited by the level of our other subsystems. For example, even if you had level 10 drones, they wouldn¡¯t be able to upgrade your engines if your research into that subsystem was only level 0. I agree that drones should be first, though. What will you prioritize after that?¡± LANI asked. ¡°Move, shoot, defend. We need to keep those in mind while we effect repairs and upgrades. If we can¡¯t defend ourselves, all the upgrades in the world won¡¯t help if another of those void things appears. To make everything happen, though, we need to have more research modules. You said that you had the schematics for them in your database?¡± Watkins asked.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I do, but I¡¯m afraid I will need complete repairs before I can unlock that research tree. My advice would be to try and get everything you can to level 1 and see where we stand after that. Each level of research will take progressively longer than the previous one, and to add to that, you¡¯re limited on the number of research modules you can control. Check your status, it should have unlocked information on that now,¡± LANI explained. Watkins did as she asked, pulling up his complete status information. Vessel: Pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: Unknown. Core Processing Power: 43%. Core Durability: 100%. Crew: none. Core controlled units: Command Limit: 16/16.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (13).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (3).
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (0).
Resources:
  1. Salvage: 287.
  2. Biomass: 193.
Integrated Systems:
  1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 46%
  2. Level 0 universal fabricator:
  3. Level 0 reprocessor:
Research Modules 1/1. Research Progress.
  1. Drone, Level 1. 1% progress.
¡°Research has started, and it looks like my core can only handle one research module for the time being. Maybe after we integrate the rest of the ship, we can unlock the capacity for a second one,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Excellent, we¡¯ve done good work here, Captain, and I think the immediate threat is over. We can take some time to effect repairs and then continue our mission. Do you have any idea where our current position is? I¡¯ll send you the system charts,¡± LANI said. Watkins could feel the file integrate into his database as LANI sent the information. Pulling up the system map, it took Watkins a bit to familiarize himself with it. His naval career had given him the tools he needed to operate in a 3D environment, but an entire solar system was a huge place to get a handle on. With the system data in hand, he began to look through his sensors, recognizing the stars and their position. He was now a ship¡¯s core, with more processing power than every computer on Earth. Still, it took him some time to verify their position. They had drifted far from the system and were well into unknown territory. Watkins shared the information with LANI and waited for her to respond. ¡°So far, I knew that we¡¯d been drifting for some time, but we¡¯re so far from where I started. No wonder I can¡¯t connect to any of the stations from here. Even if they survived the missile strike from the kobolds, there is no way a signal could reach this far without total degradation,¡± LANI said. ¡°I suppose our next effort will be to get the engines going. We just have two maneuver thrusters for the time being, and if we can get them operational, we can at least stop our momentum and begin to head in the right direction,¡± Watkins said. ¡°According to my calculations, with the maneuver thruster operating at maximum efficiency, it will take us 99.56 of your years to arrive at our destination,¡± LANI said. Watkins could feel the hopelessness in her voice. She may just be an advanced AI, but he supposed even AIs had a desire to fulfill their purpose. Having that purpose delayed nearly a hundred years was enough to depress even a computer. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we should have a total of four maneuver thrusters if the ones at the bow survived. If not, we can research replacements. Not only that, but we can also start with the main engine design. It won¡¯t take us a fraction of the time you estimated to get where we want to be,¡± Watkins tried to assure his adjunct. He reorganized the drone teams, pulling enough from salvage operations that he had two working on each maneuver thruster. There was a lot of work to do with both, as the hull structure they were mounted to was compromised and needed additional reinforcements to stand up to the forces that would be generated by even the small maneuver thrusters. There was still one drone working on the point defense laser, and he had all the rest tasked with the salvage operations. The drones were doing good work, and had taken the time to make sure the debris was safely secured to the hull. The storage racks in the fabrication compartment were filling up as well, and as one drone stopped to drop off its latest load of salvage, he had it begin rebuilding the entire shelving unit in the room. Half of the shelving had been salvaged earlier to fuel Watkins¡¯ construction of MOBS and drones. Now, he needed the storage racks to be returned to their original function. At least the shelving was a simple build, and the drone would be done with its task rather quickly. Despite not being complex, the shelving was rather well designed. Under hard maneuvers, the shelving would deploy flexible tie downs and keep everything from flying around the compartment. If the blocks of salvage weren¡¯t secured, it would be like firing a cannon off inside the compartment under hard maneuvers. Chapter 18. Underway. Chapter 18. Underway. ¡°Maneuver thruster one is ready for testing,¡± LANI announced. Time had passed and Watkins was focused on integrating the rest of the ship, finding that, with the research module working, he lacked the ability to focus on too many things at once. Slowing down the pace of integration to free up processing power, he checked on the indicated engine. The maneuver thruster was showing green on his status board, and he could feel the power of his core connecting to the thruster. That was another incredible feature of his ship¡¯s design. He could use any part of his hull to send power to where it was needed. No bulky power cables, or plasma tubes were needed on his ship, just confirmation from Watkins that the device could tap into his nearly limitless power generation. If only his processing power was as limitless as his energy production. Sadly, the drone research had only hit 58% and that was with LANI helping it along. Turning back to the operational maneuver thruster, he could see the reinforcements to the deck structure were solid, and that there were no known faults in the thruster itself. It was time for his ship to get underway. ¡°Here we go, power to maneuver thruster one is active,¡± Watkins announced as the small thruster fired up, generating a bit of heat as it converted his core energy into thrust. Cradled in an adjustable mount, the thruster could orient itself toward the heading Watkins wanted. Everything was controlled automatically through Watkins¡¯ core. He needed some practice to get a better feel for it, but it didn¡¯t take long to rotate the ship so it was no longer slowly spinning and was oriented back toward the system. The closest object on their path was the main jump point, that the system map labeled as jump point two. It confused Watkins, as he knew about jump points from the information the system had installed in him at creation, but he realized that his ship was missing something important. ¡°LANI, we¡¯ll be passing by jump point two when we enter the system. Is there a reason why our ship doesn¡¯t have a jump drive. All we can do is putt around the system on our main drives, once we get those installed,¡± Watkins said with some annoyance. ¡°It was a problem of resources. A jump drive is a very complex and materials intensive project. To create one and install it in an unproven ship design would be wasteful. Don¡¯t forget, our first two experimental vessels were failures. The designs for a jump drive will be stored in the station database. When we link to the database, we can download them for you to use,¡± LANI replied. ¡°You put a lot of faith in finding what we need on a station that was supposedly destroyed. What if what we¡¯re looking for isn¡¯t there?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°In that case, we¡¯ll have to spend more time researching one. Between the two of us, there is basic knowledge of how the drivers operate. It¡¯s only a matter of throwing enough research module time at it. But tell me, Watkins, why do you even want to go outside the system. Everything we need to complete the design trials for your ship can be found here,¡± LANI replied. She was right, they could experiment and improve his design with the resources here. Maybe they could even rebuild the station and have it assist them in their efforts. Fulfilling the council¡¯s purpose for him was the true goal, not blindly jumping into other systems. No! This wasn¡¯t his goal. Watkins fought against his cold, machine-like mind. The battle between the two halves of his new existence flaring up once more. His humanity clawed its way to the forefront. Much of his memories had been deleted to make room for his new mind, but enough remained to know that somewhere, he had loved ones, and an entire species he¡¯d like to protect. ¡°You forget that I¡¯m not from here. I¡¯m not some AI or computer this council you serve cobbled together. I¡¯m a real person, a real person who comes from another world. My crew and I will want to return to Earth. We can help our world prepare for space travel and help them understand the dangers humanity is going to face as we explore the stars,¡± Watkins said with determination.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. That was going to be his goal. He wanted to somehow get back to Earth and share what he¡¯d learned with humanity. To get back, he¡¯d need a jump drive, as well as charts showing him the path he needed to take. First, he would explore the system, gather information and supplies. Once his ship was strong enough, he¡¯d research a jump drive and begin the long journey home. ¡°It may not be too hard to find your home again,¡± LANI said. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Watkins asked. He had expected LANI to try and push him toward her goals. It was becoming clear the two had a different final objective, but they¡¯d still need to work together if they wanted to survive. ¡°Your world was linked to this system through what we called Jump Point 1. That jump point wasn¡¯t stable, but as long as it is still there, you can use that to return home. You do need to realize that a lot of time has passed, and those you¡¯re seeking to reunite with may no longer be there. In the time since you were saved and placed in the core, your world may have changed drastically,¡± LANI said. She was right, once he recovered his memories, it would be a bittersweet accomplishment. There was no doubt that everyone he loved, and several generations of humanity had long passed over the centuries since he had been abducted. After considering it, and resisting more calls from his other mind, Watkins realized that his goal had not changed. ¡°I know what you mean, LANI, but I still need to go back,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Fine, but can we at least agree that you¡¯ll help me gather all the data the council wanted from your vessel before you leave? I also have a goal and a purpose to fulfill as well, and shouldn¡¯t my goals and desires not have the same weight as yours?¡± LANI asked. He was about to reply that she was just an AI, not a real person, but stopped before he made that mistake. If he was honest with himself, was Watkins all that different from LANI. He no longer had a flesh and blood body, and his mind was housed in this core contraption. It was too easy to dismiss LANI as just a computer, but he sensed that the adjunct AI was more than that, it was sapient, and not just responding to inputs and programming. LANI was real. If she was real, then her goals held importance as well. Despite that, he would place his objectives over LANI¡¯s if push came to shove. ¡°I understand, and we¡¯ll do what we can to fulfill your objectives as well. There¡¯s no reason we can¡¯t help each other in this thing,¡± Watkins replied. ¡°Thank you, Captain Watkins,¡± LANI said. He could feel there was something more she wanted to say, but his attention was drawn from their conversation by something on his sensors. His range wasn¡¯t that great yet, but something with enough mass to trigger the passive sensors was approaching their ship. ¡°LANI, we¡¯ve got something out there,¡± Watkins said, pushing the sensor data over to the adjunct. They both watched as Watkins calculated the object¡¯s trajectory. With his recent maneuvering, the object would miss by a wide margin but would come close enough for them to gather more data on it. ¡°What do you think it is? More debris?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, give the sensors some more time to process the data. It¡¯s not on an intercept course, so we don¡¯t have to worry about a collision,¡± LANI said. While they waited, Watkins pulled an extra drone from salvage duty and assigned it to help repair the point defense laser. If this thing coming near them was dangerous, he wanted to have something to respond with. As the distance close, they could make out the overall mass of the object. It was smaller than their ship, only about 10% of the vessel¡¯s overall mass. If it had been on a collision course, it would have done significant damage, but now, it seemed harmless. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s part of the same debris that hit us? It seems unlikely given how long has passed,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I suppose that is a good assessment. Even though a long time has passed, any debris should have traveled on a similar path and velocity, so it¡¯s not completely outside the realm of possibility that its more debris from the station or even our ship,¡± LANI explained. ¡°Uh, LANI. If that is debris, is there any reason it would be changing course? That thing just turned onto an intercept course with us. Estimated time to collision is 23 minutes 19 seconds,¡± Watkins said. ¡°I agree, someone, or something is guiding that object. Its readings are odd, I¡¯m detecting alloys similar to those used to construct our vessel, but also some anomalous readings. Try a course adjustment and see if it matches us,¡± LANI suggested. Watkins adjusted the maneuver thruster a bit, and they watched as the object shifted onto a new intercept course. He tried a few more times, noting the other object¡¯s ability to change course was close to his own. Whatever was out there wanted to reach their vessel. Whether this thing turned out to be friend of foe remained to be seen. Chapter 19. Open Fire. Chapter 19. Open Fire. ¡°How long until we can see exactly what this is?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be too long, your sensor net is degraded, and you haven¡¯t unlocked all the information in your database about the system and potential threats, so it will need to be fairly close to get exact identification on the object,¡± LANI explained. She was right, he did feel rather incomplete, a feeling that was oddly growing as he integrated more and more of the ship. It was like the more of his ship that Watkins gained control over, the more he could realize its deficiencies. He could deal with the deficiencies later, for now, he wanted the entire ship under his control, as well a way to handle with the object heading toward them. While they waited to identify the object, Watkins pulled his drones off salvage duty and tried to assign them all to the point defense laser. As the drones arrived at the laser, he soon realized that you could have too many chefs in the kitchen. The drones were getting in each other¡¯s way and causing more problems than they were fixing. After a few seconds of tinkering, it turned out the optimal number of drones working on the laser was three. The other drones he ordered to made sure the chunk of salvage impaling the ship was secure. He didn¡¯t want to lose it if that unknown object slammed into them. Once that was done, the drones gathered, along with his surviving mutant rats, into a rapid reaction force. Half positioned themselves in the reprocessor room, and half with the fabricator. If they were all in one place and the hull was breached, he stood to lose all his defenders. Watkins adjusted his maneuver thruster several times, trying to buy extra time for his drones to work. A strange feeling hit as the point defense laser came online. There were still several faults showing with the weapon, but the drones were on the case. It should be less than a minute before the weapon was ready for him to fire if need be. ¡°Look at that, it appears that object is the aft end of our ship. Oh, that¡¯s not good,¡± LANI said, drawing Watkins¡¯ attention away from the laser repairs. He could see it, a large chunk of the aft section, including the one of the thruster nozzles from the main drive. A maneuver thruster, still operational, was glowing with an odd, green power signature. It provided enough thrust that the chunk of debris could remain on an intercept course. It wasn¡¯t the engine or the collision course that had drawn LANI¡¯s concern, it was what Watkins could see growing throughout the wreckage. Another of the void creatures, larger than the one he¡¯d recently defeated, had somehow integrated itself into the wreckage of his vessel. Having a chunk of his engine compartment wasn¡¯t enough, the monster was coming not just for Watkins¡¯ core, but also for the rest of his ship. ¡°LANI, how is that thing driving the debris? The other one you said was being sustained by my core energy, what¡¯s keeping this one alive?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°There¡¯s a lot we don¡¯t know about the void creatures, which is why this whole research project was created by the council. Only a bit of that research is in my database, but what it does contain tells me that the larger the void creature, the more powerful it is. Something like that may be able to not only sustain itself, but also use part of the ship for its own purposes,¡± LANI explained. ¡°It may have hitched a ride on part of our ship, and is using one of the thrusters, but we have something it doesn¡¯t,¡± Watkins said as the point defense laser repairs were complete and he could feel the weapon under his control. It was almost like the weapon was a natural part of his body, which he supposed it was now. Using his view of the approaching wreckage, Watkins adjusted the thruster so their only weapon could come to bear on the target. The distance was well within the weapon¡¯s range and his ability to target, so Watkins fired his first shot in space. While the laser¡¯s beam should have been invisible in space, it was perfectly visible for Watkins. Looking at everything around you with sensors gave different feedback than the visual spectrum he could see with his human eyes.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The beam pulsed for under a second, and Watkins could feel it pull power from his core as it fired. While the amount felt negligible, he could see how having all his weapons online would drain his core energy quickly. The weapon looked like a reddish-orange beam that lanced out into space. His aim was off, and the beam came nowhere close to the target. Watkins adjusted his aim, his core providing its incredible processing power to solve the targeting error. A moment later he could sense it, the turret mechanism was binding up and the malfunction made it harder for Watkins to adjust his aim. Pulling more power from his core, Watkins fired again. The red beam pulsed toward the target, missing once more, but closer than it had been with the first shot. He wanted to order the drones to repair the track the turret swiveled on, but there was the potential that the ongoing repairs would cause the weapon to go offline, right when he needed it the most. No, he¡¯d continue the fight with the turret as it was. The distance between his vessel and the creature was closing, making Watkins¡¯ job easier with each passing second. Firing his third shot, the beam passed within meters of the bow of the wreckage. A final minor adjustment, and the weapon active a fourth time. This time, Watkins hit his target, the beam burned deep into part of the exposed mass of the void creature. The beam pulsed for under a second, but that was enough time for it to dig deep into the creature¡¯s flesh. Vapor from its unnatural form drifted from the point of impact, and some of the fluid from inside the monster was pulled out by the vacuum. Exposed like this, the monster seemed especially vulnerable to the weapon Watkins was using. ¡°Targeting errors have been solved, it¡¯s time to light this thing up,¡± Watkins said as he activated the point defense laser again. This time, instead of a single shot, Watkins fired the weapon the way it was intended to be used. The point defense laser was supposed to rapidly pulse out beams of energy to intercept missiles or small attack craft. Its rate of fire wasn¡¯t a beam going out every minute or so like it had been when Watkins was dialing in the range. Even with the limited efficiency of the weapon, Captain Watkins was able to fire a pulse every ten seconds. One after another, the beams lanced into the wreckage and the creature that now controlled it. Watkins needed to keep less and less of his attention on targeting as the distance closed and each shot became easier to aim. At first, the beams peppered the debris, sometimes hitting and melting part of the alloy structure of what was once part of his engine bay, and other times into the exposed flesh of the void creature. As the range closed, Watkins could focus a bit more accurately, and the beams ceased hitting the precious salvage moving toward him, and almost always bit deep into the void creature. The monster squirmed, trying to force itself further into the wreckage, but Watkins was relentless. Shot after shot punched into the monster and more and more of it was vaporized. Each shot caused double the damage it normally would as the monster seemed vulnerable to the vacuum of space when its outer flesh was breached, and more of its mass was pulled out of it. The only problem was that the damage wasn¡¯t occurring fast enough. He was tearing it apart, but the creature was many times the size of the previous monster he¡¯d fought. It was hurting, but given his weapon¡¯s current rate of fire, there would be a lot of it left of it when their vessels collided. Maneuvers also began to demand more of Watkins¡¯ attention, he needed to constantly adjust his heading with the limited power of the maneuver thruster. As it stood, he was likely going to be able to mitigate most of the impact by matching speed and heading with the debris as it closed in. Something flew from the wreckage toward Watkins, and several alerts sounded as his core analyzed the new threat. Warning, incoming kinetic rounds. Shields are offline. Armor scheme is compromised. Recommended course of action, evasive maneuvers. ¡°I can help with calculating the evasive maneuvers if you wish, Watkins, I think we can avoid the incoming fire without much trouble,¡± LANI said as Watkins read the rather unnecessary recommendations from his core systems. ¡°Thanks, but what exactly is coming toward us? That section of ship didn¡¯t have any weapons mounts on it,¡± Watkins said, confused over how the enemy was attacking them at range. ¡°Watkins, these void creatures possess many deadly abilities, and the larger the specimen, the more dangerous it becomes,¡± LANI explained as she smoothly added her processing power to his evasive maneuver calculations. ¡°We¡¯re going to need more firepower,¡± Watkins said as a desperate plan began to form in his core. Chapter 20. Incoming Void Creature. Chapter 20. Incoming Void Creature. Watkins focused on his connection to the point defense turret. The laser inside was firing on its normal programming, unleashing enough power to defeat a rather delicate anti-ship missiles or the small attack craft it was designed to fight. Here, Watkins needed more than just a brief burst of power, he needed to burn that void creature to ash. Through the connection, he could see the channels on the hull that the weapon used to draw power from his core. As the laser fired its next pulse of energy, Watkins did more than just allow it to draw from his core, he force-fed the weapon more of his power. The reddish-orange color of the beam turned to blood red, and it fired for nearly twice as long as a regular pulse. The beam burrowed into the monster, digging far deeper than the previous strikes. A second, then a third pulse landed, and the creature visibly writhed as its body was burned and whatever made up the insides of the thing spilled into space. When the fourth beam fired, Watkins could tell that the point defense laser was heating up. A fifth beam caused Watkins pain as he fired it. He could sense that the creature was dying, but he needed just a bit more damage to finish it off. Ignoring the pain, Watkins fired the enhanced beam a sixth time. Pain flared on his hull as the focusing mirror of the point defense turret melted down and damaged many of the weapon¡¯s internal components. Another pain hit him, this time amidships. Shifting his focus, Watkins could see a blob of green, mucous-like slime melting into the armored deck. The goo quickly began to lose its potency, and he was spared a hull breach. Despite being spared the destruction of a hull breach, the damaged section of his hull continued to ache in a way that reminded Watkins of a burn he suffered from a flare up on his grill at home. The brief memory of a cookout dissipated before the pain did. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Captain Watkins, my calculations were off, and that last shot got through. I hadn¡¯t accounted for the creature learning my evasion pattern and using it against me. Thankfully, it looks like that last hit destroyed the void creature,¡± LANI apologized. Watkins looked through his sensors, and while there was still much of the creature wound through the wreckage, it was inert, and he detected no life on the incoming chunk of debris. He wasn¡¯t convinced, however, and ordered three of his drones to effect repairs on his point defense turret. Without the other vessel changing course, it was easy to pull alongside as he waited for his laser to come back online. ¡°I think we can reasonably believe that the creature is dead,¡± LANI said, noticing his reluctance to pull closer the debris. ¡°I don¡¯t doubt your data, LANI, but these things are adaptable, and who¡¯s to say this one didn¡¯t leave a surprise behind as a failsafe? I¡¯d much rather just keep it at arm¡¯s length until the point defense turret is back online. Let me blast that thing to pieces and I¡¯ll feel more comfortable bringing it into contact with our ship,¡± Watkins explained. ¡°Fine, I suppose it¡¯s not the most inefficient action. Our course is taking us further out of the system, but when we gather the aft section salvage and add the second operational thruster to our ship, we¡¯ll quickly make up for lost time. While you work, I¡¯ll continue to assist the research module,¡± LANI said. ¡°Great, for now, I¡¯ll have the drones not on repair duty continue salvaging operations and I¡¯ll try to finish integrating the rest of the ship. When the point defense turret is back online, I¡¯ll start poking that monster¡¯s corpse to make sure it¡¯s safe. Why do you think it died with so much mass left? The other one was effective, and it was much smaller than what¡¯s left aboard the aft section?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°It¡¯s one of the things our research was working on. Our best guess was that as these things grow, their functions come under the control of a central hive mind of sorts. Cause enough damage to the creature and the hive mind can no longer maintain its life functions. Just remember, no matter how big, if you do enough damage, they die. Take that explanation with some skepticism, though, I don¡¯t have the full research data in my server here, most of it will be on the station or destroyed,¡± LANI explained.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Thanks, we¡¯ll get to the station eventually, and that should give us answers or at least some insight for a lot of questions we have,¡± Watkins said as they both returned to their tasks. He pushed his core integration toward the bow, moving slowly across the entire hull. As he closed in on the bow, two new structures were discovered. The first was one of his main gun mounts. It looked like these council people had installed the turret mechanism, but not any weapon yet. From the limited data, he knew the main guns were much more powerful than the point defense laser he had just used. The guns featured a 3-inch focusing array compared to the small ? aperture of the point defense laser. Capable of maintaining its fire for a longer period of time, the guns would be devastating to something Watkins¡¯ size if they faced more ship-to-ship combat. Sadly, the details on the main guns were missing and producing one would mean reaching the research station and downloading any information they might have. He supposed that he could eventually research how to build and mount the laser cannon main guns, but Watkins had no idea how long that might take usin his single, rather inadequate research module. His push forward had also uncovered another part of his ship. This time, it was a small sensor bank located on the bottom hull of the ship. The hull bulged out in a rectangular shape where the sensor bank was located. While his sensor nodes were spread out all over the hull of his ship, this section was more densely packed with them. Just like most of rest of his vessel, the sensor bank was offline and damaged. Unlike the rest of his ship, the damage was minimal, and there was enough left of that part of the hull which allowed Watkins to use it as a pattern for the repairs. Another pair of drones were pulled from salvage operations to work on the sensor bank. Locating threats before they spotted his ship was going to be key to surviving another attack like the one that they had just experienced. With plenty of salvage pouring in, and the aft chunk waiting to be recovered, Watkins was feeling more confident in his ship becoming whole once more. After integrating the sensor bank, his core processing power bumped up again, from 43%, to 51%. With the additional processing power, his command limit increased to 18. The two new command limit slots were filled with another pair of drones, which went to work on the salvage once they left the fabricator. Next in his integration progress was finding the second main gun turret. Like the first turret, this one was only a mount and turret mechanism, no actual weapon. This turret had taken more damage than the other and would require quite a few repairs before it was functional again. Repairs for the forward turret were set as a low priority. Without guns to mount inside them, it made little sense to waste time and resources there when the rest of his ship was in such dire shape. Just before he reached the bow section that had been sheared off, Watkins ran into one more key component of his ship. It was the shield generator. Knowledge of how it functioned and how he could operate it was pulled from Watkins¡¯ core. When activated, the shield generator would project a protective bubble of energy around his vessel. It would absorb both kinetic, and beam-based weapon damage from lasers and such. The shields had a limited capacity and when too much damage was taken in too short a time, they would overload and go inactive to prevent damage to the shield generator¡¯s components. His shield generator resembled two wings jutting out from the side of his hull. The two generators would overlap their protection, one taking up the slack when the other was overloaded and went offline. Sadly, only one of the shield generator wings had survived the destruction of his ship. The surviving generator wing was damaged but should be repairable. Depending on how bad the damage was, he may need more shield research completed. A quick check of both his and LANI¡¯s database showed that he lacked the necessary schematics to rebuild the missing shield generator from scratch, but having this partial section of the shield generator to examine would help them fill in the gaps. The only research module he currently had was almost done with its current project, but it would still be a while before shield generator research made its way into the front of the queue. Research Module 1 has completed its current task. Repair Drones, Level 1, can now be constructed. The schematic for these new drones is now uploaded into the universal fabricator. Research Module 1 is awaiting further commands. Chapter 21. Options Unlocked. Chapter 21. Options Unlocked. ¡°The drone upgrade is completed, and it looks like we¡¯ve unlocked a few new options for research. Take a look and let me know if you have any suggestions on what we should research next?¡± Watkins asked, wanting to solicit his adjunct¡¯s opinion on the matter. They both looked over his available research options. It seemed that his systems had unlocked more research chains based on the newly discovered ship components. Available research options for Research Module 1. Module specialization: none. Weapons and Armor:
  1. Pulse rifle, level 1.
  2. Pulse pistol, level 1.
  3. Light body armor, level 1.
  4. Melee weapons, level 1.
MOBS and drones:
  1. Construction Drone, Level 2.
  2. Mutated Bilge Rat, Level 0.
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0.
Ship Components:
  1. Limited Adjunct Network Interface Server, Level 0.
  2. Compartment structure, Level 1.
  3. Hull plating, Level 1.
  4. Sensor module, Level 1.
  5. D¨¦cor, furnishings, and personal items, Level 1
Ship¡¯s Weapons:
  1. Point defense laser, Level 1.
Ship¡¯s Defenses. Shield generator, Level 0. Propulsion and Drives:
  1. Maneuver thruster, Level 1.
There was more here than Watkins had expected, as well as some things he was sorry to see were missing. When he opened the list, he was sad to see no option for main gun batteries, but that was probably because he had exactly zero in the way of main guns to start with. Having just the turret wasn¡¯t enough, though researching the point defense laser further might help unlock something new. Both the fabricator and the reprocessor weren¡¯t on the list either. Watkins had been looking forward to seeing what the upgrades there could accomplish. He figured that maybe they¡¯d be added when either his core processing power maxed out, or after LANI had some upgrades that unlocked new schematics for them. Either way, he¡¯d have to keep an eye on the upgrade options to see if there were changes. It seemed that everything that he already had installed and operational was ready for research into level one. The only exception was the shield generator. It wasn¡¯t operational and his drones hadn¡¯t spent any time in examining it. Sure, Watkins had a connection to it, but the system wanted him to research a bit just to get to level zero. Shields were high on the priority list, but he was open to other suggestions. ¡°When we recover the aft section salvage, it appears that at least one of the main drive engines nozzles is still mounted. I have no idea if more of the primary thruster survived so we can examine it, though. Having engines other than a maneuver thruster would make our lives easier,¡± LANI suggested. ¡°I agree, but I¡¯m not going to hold up the research module while we wait to make sure the threat of the void creature is gone, and for that section to be integrated back into the ship. For now, why don¡¯t we look at getting your server fixed up so we can try to produce more research modules,¡± Watkins suggested. ¡°I¡¯ll not pass up getting my home improved. I feel so restricted in this server and if we can figure out how to repair it completely, all our lives will be easier,¡± LANI said. ¡°I was a bit surprised to see your next server research listed as level zero. Aren¡¯t you already at least at level zero since your functioning?¡± Watkins asked.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°No, my functionality is low and the damage I sustained is going to make more advanced upgrades difficult. Your core is going to have to get back to basics on my server design before level one can be an option,¡± LANI explained. It seemed odd to Watkins that he was the core, but it was also running with a rule set that made decisions on research and the like without his direct input. Maybe it was like LANI had explained earlier and that part of him was autonomous, like breathing or a heart beating in a human. Even though it worked that way, it felt a bit odd to Watkins that he had no control or insight into it. Research Module 1 is commencing research into the Limited Adjunct Network Interface Server. ¡°I don¡¯t know how long that¡¯s going to take, but while we wait, I want to get our drones upgraded to level one,¡± Watkins said. He would have to reprocess one of his minions to free up the command limit needed to field another drone. Watkins selected one of his mutated rat MOBS, and ordered it into the reprocessor. The doomed rat complied without complaint, though Watkins did feel a bit guilty over having the poor thing sacrifice itself. Once it had been broken down into biomass and a bit of salvage material, Watkins started construction on the level one drone. It would require the same number of command points, but he could feel that further upgrades may start to require more of his focus and having drones or MOBS that required more than 1 command point to operate was likely possibility. The level one drone seemed to take a bit longer to produce than the lower-level version had. If the new drone was truly more capable, he was fine with an extra minute of production time over a less effective drone. A new prompt appeared as soon as the drone walked off the assembly line. You have produced your first Level 1 construction drone. Unlike the Level 0 repair drones, your Level 1 units have full structure and unit production capabilities. Units created by drones need to be 1 level lower than the drone producing them. Examine the updated drone interface for new command options. Watkins liked to hear that the drones could actually construct units. They might not be as good as the ones from his fabricator, but it would give him options when times were desperate, like when they faced the void creature. How long a drone took to produce a unit was also something he would have to test out, but his internal data showed him that it would take quite a bit longer than the fabricator to do so. He opened the drone interface to see what new options were available. Construction drone interface, Level 1 drone units. Select an action for individual drones, or set general priority levels for all units:
  1. Gather resources.
  2. Repair damage.
  3. Build structure/MOBS.
  4. Upgrade structures, drones, or MOBS.
That was interesting, he could now have his level one drones complete upgrades on other drones or MOBS. Watkins had been a bit worried that he would have to spend the time and effort to scrap his old units and build a new one from scratch. By just upgrading the existing units, he could save a few resources as there was always inefficiency inherent in a level zero reprocessor, even when it was operating without damage. For now, he had the new drone set to upgrade his fellow drones. As far as general orders, Watkins set repair damage as the priority for all drones. Unless otherwise tasked, they would try to repair the most critical damage to the vessel. As the new drone loaded up some salvage and scuttled off to upgrade his first unit, Watkins took a look at the changes to the drone. Overall, the done was about the same size as before, the only change was that the storage box on its back was now larger by about 20%. Additional tools were also integrated into the unit, allowing it the ability to fabricate and repair the intricate components that made up his ship. As far as combat, the drone was still only as effective as the level zero version. Once Watkins upgraded his MOBS past level 0, they would likely outshine the drones more and more. With the overall destruction he had to deal with on his battered vessel, spending the resources and time to research MOBS wasn¡¯t a priority. Hopefully, that decision wouldn¡¯t come back to bite him. ¡°Watkins, with the new drone, can you have it do a once over on my server? I think I can gain some efficiency if the more advanced drone redid some of the repairs,¡± LANI asked. ¡°Sure, can it wait until we have a few more units upgraded? I don¡¯t want to slow down our other work while the drone is repairing your server,¡± Watkins said. ¡°That would be fine. Once you get a few upgraded, send one of the level one units over to help me,¡± LANI requested. ¡°Not a problem, we¡¯ll get you fixed up as good as we can now, and then see what unlocks for you when the research module¡¯s done its thing,¡± Watkins said. He watched the drone upgrade one of its kin. Watkins had to order one of the drones on salvage duty to stop its efforts for the upgrades to occur. It took the new drone longer than he had expected, a good ten minutes, to finish the upgrades. Once the new unit was upgraded, he had both his level one units on upgrade duty. When the next pair was upgraded, one of the newly upgraded units headed over to work on LANI. With LANI and the other upgrades underway, it was time to return his attention to integrating the last parts of his ship. Chapter 22. Integration Complete. Chapter 22. Integration Complete. Watkins continued to expand his influence across the hull as the drones worked to upgrade themselves. LANI was also slowly being repaired. After a time, Watkins¡¯ efforts reached the forward area of the ship. In the bow, he found his ship had been sheared off with jagged damage just like that of his engine room. There was supposed to be a torpedo room, but all but the first few feet of that compartment were gone. Along with the two torpedo tubes, he was also missing the maneuver thrusters that were placed on the bow. At least the bow thrusters were no different than the ones mounted aft, and they were something he could easily replicate once the structure of the ship was repaired. With the bow integrated, at least what was left of it, Watkins felt almost complete. His core was running even smoother with the addition of more of the microscopic devices that permeated the structure. While he felt almost complete, he wasn¡¯t quite there, a good section of his aft and bow were sheared off, but with the basic schematics he had inside his database, he could rebuild them. The main drives, torpedo tubes, and other items couldn¡¯t be replicated yet. At least he would have the overall structure of his ship completely whole. Watkins knew that he could not only rebuild his vessel how it had originally been designed but he could also improve upon what his original designers had envisioned. While Watkins reveled in completing his ship integration, he noticed the point defense laser was back online. Power began to flow into the weapon once more and he ran in internal check to see if it was stable. The last thing he wanted was to get off a few shots, only to have the weapon melt down again. ¡°LANI, the point defense laser is online, I¡¯m going to get back to work on the void creature,¡± Watkins advised. ¡°Good, the sooner we can bring that salvage in to be harvested, the better off we¡¯ll be,¡± Lani said. His functions check on the point defense laser was showing all green lights, so he targeted the debris, specifically, anywhere he could detect part of the void creature¡¯s mass. Pulses of energy lanced into the corpse of the creature. For the first few shots, Watkins expected the monster to spring back to life, but as more and more of its mass was burned away, he began to believe that the monster was truly defeated. A portion of his mind controlled the point defense turret, while Watkins took in the improvements that adding the rest of his ship had on his core. Vessel: Pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: Unknown. Core Processing Power: 62%. Core Durability: 100%. Systems:
  1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 46%
  2. Level 0 universal fabricator: 100%.
  3. Level 0 reprocessor: 100%.
Crew: none. Core controlled units: Command Limit: 18/20.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (15).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (3).
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (0).
Resources:
  1. Salvage: 281.
  2. Biomass: 89.
His processing power was now up to 62%. Watkins had hoped for more, but he realized that large parts of his ship were still missing, and much of the rest of his vessel was still heavily damaged. The core wouldn¡¯t hit 100% until his hull was completely rebuilt and he was repaired, both inside and out. LANI had also bumped up a couple of points from where she had been the last time he¡¯d checked. The level one drone was still working on repairs for her, so he hoped she would improve further. There was supposedly a lot of data held inside her server, and the more she was repaired the more she could access for them.Stolen novel; please report. His command capacity was up to twenty, a gain of two. Additional drones were ordered, though Watkins wondered if he should pursue upgrading some MOBS before too long. For now, repairs and salvage were going to be his main focus, but later, having something more durable than a drone or a level zero mutant rat would likely be necessary. The point defense turret stopped firing as Watkins noticed there were no more visible sections of the monster still clinging to the debris. There was likely more infesting the interior of the debris, but there had been no further reaction, which satisfied Watkins that the threat was negated. He would still use caution with the debris and began to plan on a way to safely harvest the resources there. He didn¡¯t want his ship attached to the debris until he was sure it was completely safe. To deal with it, he had a drone use some salvage to create a strong cable. Securing one end of the cable to his drone, he had it attach the other end securely to his hull. The cable wasn¡¯t just welded to the hull, it was placed in clamp that Watkins could cut free at any time. With the cable secure, he maneuvered closer and had the drone leap off the hull and drift toward the debris. The two newly created drones also arrived to help. A total of three cables were created, and the drones flung themselves at the debris. It took over a dozen tries before one of the drones finally landed on target. For all his processing power, as soon as the drone left his ship, the connection frayed, which hampered Silas¡¯ calculations. Once the successful drone landed, it secured the cable to the debris and began to explore. With one cable secure, the other two drones used it to climb over and secure their own cables. Having three drones working, the chunk of debris was examined. As Watkins suspected, more of the creature had been packed into several spaces inside the debris. Before they examined the wreckage further, the monster had to be dealt with. All three drones began to cut and pry the monster¡¯s body out of the debris. As they worked lose chunks of the monster, it slowly turned into vapor. At first, Watkins thought it was a fine dust, but he could detect nothing remaining of the monster. It was as if once the body was destroyed, it could no longer exist in the real universe and was pulled back into the void. With part of his focus watching the trio of drones¡¯ work, he looked in on the existing salvage operations. The chunk of station that had impaled his ship was slowly shrinking as the drones broke it down for reprocessing. Bricks of salvage material were stockpiled in the fabrication compartment, ready and waiting for him to use. Before Watkins got to work on rebuilding, he wanted the salvage impaling his ship completely recovered. He had a total of thirteen drones working on harvesting, and of those, half were now upgraded to the level one drones. The new drones seemed to function at least 15% better than the level zero versions. In addition, their storage capacity was 10% larger, allowing them to gather more material before needing to haul it to the reprocessor. As his drones worked, Watkins planned out the rebuilding efforts. He¡¯d start with the aft of the ship. Once the creature was cleared out of the floating debris, he could get a look at what remained of the main drive on what had once been the engine compartment of his ship. The plan was to reattach the section, if possible, and repair it from there. Most of his drones would be working on that task, but a smaller team would be working inside the ship to fully repair whatever they could inside. There was also more salvage laying around the ship, but it was easier and more efficient to harvest the large piece impaling the ship and the drones working on internal repairs could sweep up as they worked. It took several hours before the trio of drones had scoured the entire chunk of floating debris. As far as Watkins could tell, not a bit of the creature remained. Now, he maneuvered the debris, so it was positioned to the aft of his ship. This process was made easier due to the cables securing the debris. His drones simply disconnected the cables one at a time and reconnected them to hold the debris securely to the aft of his ship. The damage was extensive, and the one surviving drive was only a partial piece of the rear thruster. It wasn¡¯t enough to rebuild it, but the information his drones gathered should help him create a schematic for the drive. Unlike his ship on Earth, or the information on the starships he had in his database, the drives on his ship were smaller, but much more powerful. He was providing the power for the drives, and that negated the need for a separate power generation device, or the need to store fuel. There was also no need for a separate compartment for things like life support or inertial dampeners. Watkins considered his vessel a warship first and foremost, especially given the hostile threats he¡¯d already encountered. Once he was completely repaired and upgraded, his ship could pack more firepower, speed, and armor than any similarly sized vessel should be able to. The only problem was that most of his data was at least a century out of date. Even a century was probably a conservative estimate, since from what LANI had mentioned, the station that had built him had been dormant and abandoned for an even longer period before he was ever pulled into the core. ¡°Watkins, my repairs are complete, though we can do a lot more once the upgrade for my server has finished being researched,¡± LANI announced. ¡°Do you feel better?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure we really feel anything anymore, but yes, operating more efficiently has had a beneficial effect. Even better, I¡¯ve unlocked some new schematics for us,¡± LANI said. ¡°That¡¯s great news, share what you¡¯ve found,¡± Watkins asked, eager to see what LANI had discovered. Chapter 23. Unlocking Research. Chapter 23. Unlocking Research. ¡°These should help out with rebuilding our ship,¡± LANI said as she pushed over the schematics. Watkins¡¯ core integrated them into his database, absorbing the knowledge in less than a second. New Schematics Unlocked: MOBS and Drones:
  1. Kobold crewman, Level 0.
Ship¡¯s Components:
  1. Research Module, Level 0.
Ship¡¯s Weapons:
  1. Torpedo Launcher: Initial.
Ship¡¯s Defenses:
  1. Internal weapon hardpoint: Initial.
Propulsion and Drives:
  1. Main propulsion unit, Level 0.
  2. Maneuver thruster, Level 0.
¡°Interesting, what¡¯s with the kobold? The name sounds familiar, and I think you¡¯ve mentioned them before,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°A kobold is a small reptilian species that possess a modest intellect. They tend to be very aggressive and territorial. Also, they made up a large percentage of the pirates in this area. Of course, my data is centuries out of date. Have you humans encountered the kobold species before?¡± LANI asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure where I know the name and species from, that¡¯s more data that¡¯s been deleted from my memory to make room for core operations data. If we can create kobolds as MOBS, why not humans?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°We probably can, if we had enough data. Kobolds had been defeated and reprocessed many times by the council, but humans are something new and in addition to the jump point anomaly leading to your home system, they were a new species for us to research,¡± LANI said. That was interesting to Watkins, not just the vague idea that he had heard about kobolds in his human life, it was the fact that this council, that had who knew how many species under its control, had never encountered humans before. LANI had said the jump point directly to his world was gone, and Watkins couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit relieved at that. He wasn¡¯t sure he wanted humanity¡¯s home world accessible by whatever might make its way to Earth, especially after seeing those void creatures. ¡°We need to finish rebuilding our ship, then we can see about researching new things. From what we have available now, I think learning how to build another research module would be best. Once the research on your server is done, we¡¯ll go with that,¡± Watkins decided. ¡°That seems like a good plan. I should warn you, though, after the research module is done, it may require a second pass to completely unlock level zero research for me. Until then, we have plenty of other work to do, and I¡¯ll help out where I can,¡± LANI said. ¡°How will you be helping out?¡± Watkins asked, curious what else she might be able to do. LANI had helped when I was integrating the hull, maybe she¡¯d be able to do something similar with the rebuilding efforts. ¡°I can work directly with a few of the drones, improving their efficiency by 15%. I know its not a huge difference, but the work needs to be done, and we might as well do as quickly as possible,¡± LANI offered. ¡°An extra 15% speed for some of our drones sounds great to me. I¡¯m going to work on getting the aft section reinstalled,¡± Watkins said. LANI made a few attempts and found that she could boost up to three of their drones at once. For now, while Watkins worked on the aft section, he had the improved drones handling salvage operations. They were steadily cutting down the chunk of station that impaled the ship, and piles of salvage were starting to stack up in the fabricator compartment. They ended up pulling one drone to do nothing more than shuttle the newly formed salvage blocks near the engine room. Once the aft section was reattached, they were going to need a lot of resources to rebuild it back into working order. With everything else taken care of for the moment, Watkins had his drones begin reeling in the aft module debris.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. It was slow going, as he didn¡¯t want to create more damage when section finally met his vessel. As the chunk of debris neared. Watkins could see that it wasn¡¯t going to be a perfect fit. Much of the hull material had been bent and twisted, so when his ship finally clanged up against the aft section of debris, his drones had to work quickly to line things up as best they could. ¡°I¡¯d say were still missing about 30-40% of the material, but we should have more than enough salvage on hand to fix this up,¡± Watkins said as the drones began their work. Watching them work was odd. He could feel the connection to them, and knew it was his core giving them instructions on what to do, but it was all happening below his active consciousness. It was just as LANI had described it, his new body was like his flesh and blood one. Instead of breathing and his heart beating without conscious effort, so to were the efforts of his drones once he gave them orders. Looking at all the work that needed to be done, Watkins bit the bullet and had his MOBS recycled. He hated ordering them to their demise, but they weren¡¯t sentient and were just part of his system anyway. With the MOBS turned back into salvage and biomass, Watkins queued up more drones to join the workforce. He divided up the workforce of 20 drones. 10 were assigned to rebuilding efforts on the aft section, 6 were working on salvaging the station debris, and the final 4 were assigned to work on repairs, haul salvage bricks into storage, and the cleanup of the ship¡¯s interior. As the drones working on the aft section made progress, Watkins was able to integrate more and more of the debris into his vessel. The more material he added, the better his core began to operate as the clusters of micro devices became part of him. The first objective after securing the aft section was to clear the area around the one and only maneuver thruster so he could adjust course and head back into the system. One maneuver thruster wasn¡¯t much, but it gave Watkins a sense of accomplishment to feel his vessel heading in the right direction. Even better, a second maneuver thruster on the aft section, the one that the void creature had been using, only needed some minor repairs before it too was adding its thrust to the efforts. The main drives were offline, and major components were missing. He only had one of the ship¡¯s two exhaust nozzle still attached, and his core data wasn¡¯t currently sufficient to repair it. That was something that would have to wait for the research module to get to. For now, he¡¯d make do with two small maneuver thrusters and do what he seemed to be doing a lot of lately, wait. After a time, he felt his control over the aft section snap completely into place. There was a lot of work to still do, but he now felt better than he ever had since becoming a core. A quick check showed that his status had improved as all but the bow of the ship was part of him again. Vessel: Pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: 61%. Core Processing Power: 71%. Core Durability: 100%. Command Limit: 20/22. With the expanded Command Limit, another two drones were ordered. Watkins knew he needed to research more MOBS, but for now, he¡¯d continue with the all-drone strategy. A quick check showed no threats looming on the sensor returns, so he felt comfortable going for a full construction effort. With the addition of the aft section, his sensor range had also increased, but alas, unlike the aft section, there was no bow section of his vessel waiting to be recovered. At least that also meant there wasn¡¯t another of the void creatures ready to attack. By unlocking more of his processing power, Watkins could feel the original ship design was now complete. Even without a huge chunk of it floating nearby, Watkins was confident that he could rebuild the bow of his vessel from scratch. It was going to take time, and maybe more resources than he currently possessed, but he could do it. In addition, with the aft section complete, he had access to the second point defense laser hardpoint. One drone was pulled from rebuilding efforts to start building a new point defense laser. It might not have been much as far as firepower, but it made Watkins feel good to double the number of weapons at his disposal. Sadly, he lacked even the ability to build the most basic version of his main guns, but had hope that when he further researched the point defense lasers, main gun options would unlock. Torpedoes were going to take a while, and when Watkins thought about it, more information on starship combat unlocked in his core. He could see and feel the various ranges he could operate weapons systems at, and how effective the different weapon types were against the various opponents he might find out here. Oddly enough, a space battle wasn¡¯t that much different than a naval battle on the surface. Things just happened at greater distances and with much larger vessels and more firepower. Still, the principles remained the same, and Watkins could see why the station had chosen a human warship captain as a ship¡¯s core. For now, Watkins was content with his new life, but he could feel something else simmering below the surface, a desire to find Earth and his home. He was a starship, a warship, and that wasn¡¯t going to change anytime soon. What could change was where he chose to sail. Putting around in some forgotten system wasn¡¯t for him, he wanted to be home and stand ready to protect his world. To do that, he¡¯d need more than a few maneuver thrusters and a pair of point defense lasers. Chapter 24. Module Limits. Chapter 24. Module Limits. Watkins was trying to map out the shortest distance course to get them back into the system. Their first objective would be to inspect the remains of the jump point station that had once covered the approach to jump point two. While he worked, the research into LANI completed. Research Completed, new research options have unlocked.
  1. Limited Adjunct Network Interface Server Rank, 0 is now available.
¡°LANI, your research is done, but we¡¯ll have to do another pass to get you to rank zero. Before we do that, I think we need to figure out how to build another research module and upgrade the one we have,¡± Watkins said. ¡°I agree, as much as I¡¯d like to feel complete, starting as much research as possible will be crucial to our survival. Could you send a drone over to make further repairs on my server? We may not have researched it completely, but there should still be some improvements we can make,¡± LANI said. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll send one over that¡¯s working on the aft section,¡± Watkins said, pulling the drone from its task. With LANI boosting the efficiency of three of his drones, he had no problem burning resources to get her back into the best shape they could. Research Started:
  1. Research Module, Rank 0. Progress 0%.
Well, research on his research was starting, and since they already had an operating research module, it shouldn¡¯t take as long as it would have if they were starting from scratch. With that chugging away, Watkins finished plotting his ship¡¯s course back into the system. Having two maneuver thrusters improved his return time, but it was still going to take impossibly long to get back. Once in the system, there should be enough wreckage to get his ship fixed up better than what it had started out as. The odd council that created him and his ship tried to do what they could on ship design, but you could tell that many of the designers had odd concepts of how a space battle would unfold. Watkins had some vague ideas for improvements, but until his core¡¯s processing power was operating at 100%, he doubted he could do anything to implement them. There was some data in his core outlining previous space battles, and Watkins used part of his processing power to dig deeper into it. He knit together what he already knew from his previous life with the data he discovered. Surprisingly, ship combat in space wasn¡¯t all that different from naval combat on the ocean. The weapons were similar as well, though the ranges that battles would be fought at were incredibly far. With the vacuum of space, it seemed that weapons weren¡¯t limited in their range, rather in how easily the computer controlling them could track and engage the target. Watkins was excited about getting more research done on his weapons systems and wanted his ship to be a deadly opponent for anyone who sought to destroy them. Time passed as his ship repairs continued, along with his research. The aft section was finally put to rights, and he was able to pull most of the drones off that project to work on other things. A few remained to put the finishing touches on the hull sections and prepare the location for the main drives whenever they figured out how to build them. The gash in the port side of the ship where the station had impaled it was also slowly being sealed up as the debris there was harvested and stored for future use. He was happy to see the piles of salvage bricks filling up the racks inside the fabrication room. So far, salvage was being added faster than it was being used, but once he began to rebuild the bow of his ship, the reserves would be quickly depleted. After several days of effort, his research on the research module was done, and Watkins felt that he could not only rebuild the existing unit to improve its efficiency by 11.65821%, but he could also have his drones build and install a fresh unit. Pulling a pair of drones from repair duty, Watkins selected a section of his compartment where he wanted the second research module constructed. He would keep the modules inside his core room for now. There was plenty of space, and he knew the modules were rather fragile compared to the rest of the ship. With the existing module, he started researching the main drive units. According to his data, a single round of research should allow him to build a very basic, level zero main drive.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. LANI confirmed that she was fine with waiting for more research on her server, getting to their objective quickly was more important that gaining a bit more processing power for her. As far as Watkins¡¯ core went, he was feeling better as his processing power jumped up to 76%. When the gash in the side was repaired, and his bow section rebuilt, he should be back to operating at 100%. Having his processing power distrusted across his hull allowed Watkins extra survivability, but it also meant that heavy damage in a fight would slow him down a bit. His core needed all the micro devices imbedded throughout the hull, but even without them, Wakins¡¯ core would still operate. LANI was a different story, and while she could access parts of the ship, they didn¡¯t provide her with additional processing power, that was something reserved entirely for his core. What LANI could do was boost the productivity of four drones after another round of repairs were made on her server. Watkins had her boost the pair of drones building the new research module, and two of the ones harvesting salvage. The section of the space station that had impaled them was smaller now, and what remained had been dragged inside the hangar compartment that would eventually house the ship¡¯s boat and main cargo airlock. Figuring out how to build a ship¡¯s boat was yet another item on the research agenda. Without a crew, it was much lower on the totem pole, but he would need one eventually if they found and were able to revive his old crew. Another check of the empty space around him told Watkins that there were no threats nearby. The long journey back into the system was a benefit as much as it was frustrating for them. It was allowing Watkins to make repairs uninterrupted by attacks from void creatures and the like. There was one surprise as the time dragged on. His drones were scavenging the spaces between compartments found another of the mutated bilge rats. The rat took out a rather surprised drone but was quickly destroyed by reinforcements. Even though his drones were now level one, it didn¡¯t seem to improve their fighting prowess, only their ability to perform efficient and complex repairs. Time passed and the second research module was completed and activated. When Watkins tried to order a third module to be build, he was hit with a splitting headache. A quick check of his status revealed the issue. Vessel: Pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: 71%. Core Processing Power: 79%. Core Durability: 100%. Systems:
  1. Level 0 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 48%
  2. Level 0 universal fabricator: 100%.
  3. Level 0 reprocessor: 100%.
  4. Research Modules 2/2.
He had hit a hard cap on how many research modules he could run. His core just couldn¡¯t support any additional modules at this time. The pain faded as he cancelled the module construction, but even after that, he could feel a pressure build and then stabilize inside his core at is worked to process the research. It was a background process that was handled by his autonomous systems, but he could still feel the effects of being near the limits of what his core could handle. Oddly enough, reaching the control limit for his units didn¡¯t seem to have the same effect. That he could feel, but the pressure was less, like operating the MOBS and drones was somehow an easier task than performing new research. Watkins, and LANI, didn¡¯t know all the details of how his core worked, but for now, he¡¯d have to live with just two research modules. For the second research module, Watkins wanted a better way to hit back at foes other than his point defense lasers. He started research on Main Guns, Level 0. After that, he¡¯d see about more upgrades to LANI, and then begin to research the missing components of his vessel. Shields, upgraded sensors, torpedoes, and further refinements of existing systems awaited their opening in the research queue. There was so much to do, but given his latest calculations, he would have time to complete much of it before they reached the first objective in the system. Time seemed to pass in a haze as Watkins watched the progress on his research, and the rebuilding efforts of his drones. The aft section was as good as new now, and drones were nearly done with sealing up the gash in the side of the ship. Only a few large chunks of station debris littered the floor of the airlock and ship¡¯s boat compartment, which Watkins decided to rename the shuttle bay. It had a better ring to it, and after all, he was the ship and could make changes as he wished. That brought up another point, he wanted to name his vessel, and the previous restriction on allowing him to name it seemed to be removed now that he controlled the entire ship. Seeing ¡°Pending¡± appear every time he checked his status was annoying him, but Watkins couldn¡¯t decide on what he wanted to name his ship. At first, he almost went with Barracuda, the Coast Guard cutter he was commanding right before he was snatched up and made into a core. It didn¡¯t quite fit, though, and his new ship was something different, not just something designed to chase around drug dealers and fish incompetent boaters out of the water. No, he¡¯d think on this, and was certain that he¡¯d come up with something better in time. Chapter 25. Broken Signals. Chapter 25. Broken Signals. ¡°LANI, we just completed main drive research. I¡¯m getting the drones started on construction now,¡± Watkins announced as the drive research finally finished. The drives that they could build were going to be rather crude and inefficient, but it was better than relying on the puny maneuver thrusters. ¡°Excellent news, what¡¯s next on the research agenda?¡± LANI asked. ¡°I think it¡¯s time to get you fully repaired, so I¡¯m going to start that with the freed-up module. The other one is still chugging along on main gun research,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Thank you, Captain, for now, I¡¯ll shift my attention to the drones building the drives. I should be able to improve their efficiency by 16% with the latest repairs you made to my server,¡± LANI said. She had improved her drone efficiency boost by only 1%, but that would be noticeable on a big project like creating the main drives for his ship. The ship had mounting points for two main drive thrusters, and most of the drones were pulled off other tasks. There were only so many that could work on one project, and anything more than ten drones working on the drives began to bog down the construction. Stacks of processed salvage were hauled up by the drones as they began their work. So far, Watkins had held off on building out the final bow section, wanting to make sure he had enough salvage to build his drives and main guns. Having those working would be critical for their long-term survival. With his drones on the task, there wasn¡¯t much else for Watkins to do at the moment. He reviewed the drive schematics, noting the rather substantial differences in how they operated on his ship compared to the data on other starships he had in his core¡¯s memory. Other ships required large reactors of various types to provide the power for the drives, while Watkins¡¯ core did that all for him. While he could push power through any part of his ship, it was more efficient to run a few hard-line power conduits directly from his core. It would prevent inadvertent shutdowns if heavy damage to the hull was received and was overall more efficient than using the myriads of micro devices in his hull to conduct the energy he produced. Even though he decided to use a hard connection for the drives, the lack of need for a separate power source freed up massive space for other things. Another vessel the same size as Watkins¡¯ would be far less effective than he was going to be once everything was repaired and installed. Already, he was considering a third main gun mount aft of the ship. He would place it near the bottom of the hull where its field of fire wouldn¡¯t be hampered by the drive, and where it could join the other two guns for a broadside. While he wanted more firepower in the future, for now, he¡¯d go with the original configuration. It would be better to focus on installing and improving everything in the original ship design that he could. Eventually, he would need to work on that jump drive LANI had mentioned. There was a lot to do in this system, but eventually, he needed to leave here. His eventual destination was another concern for Watkins. Earth was his home, and he wanted to at least make the attempt to see what was happening there. Apparently, hundreds of years had passed since he¡¯d been snatched up, so anyone he knew would be gone. Drastic changes would have occurred, and with the presence of other, likely hostile, species out there, was there even an Earth to return to? What place would he have in the universe after returning home? That was a question he didn¡¯t want to consider at the moment, but felt that he needed to address it soon. The hard, logical part of his mind tried to suppress the anxiety over his new place in the world, but Watkins lingered on the topic for a bit longer. He needed a purpose, and for now, that purpose, and his primary objective, was recovering his crew. After completing his primary objective, he would have to wait and see what the universe had in store for him. For now, he would focus on the first step, getting back into the system and rebuilding his ship. LANI remained quiet as the construction on the drive units continued. It seemed that boosting the drones required most of her focus, and when Watkins interrupted that concentration, he could sense annoyance coming from her.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Something tickled at the back of his mind as he watched the work progress. It took him a moment to sort out what it was. The feeling was new, and as he focussed on it, he realized what it was. He was receiving communication signals. The actual comms array was destroyed on his ship, but like everything else, his ship was able to act through its micro devices as a rudimentary version of the comms array and allow him to receive and even transmit signals of his own. ¡°LANI, I¡¯m getting a hint of some comm signals, but it¡¯s faint,¡± Watkins said. ¡°What? Hold on, let me link with that part of your system, maybe I can help boost the reception and assist with translation. The drones can work on the drives without my assistance for a bit,¡± LANI said. Watkins felt her interface with his core and soon, he could sense LANI adding her processing power to his as they analyzed the signal. ¡°It¡¯s weak, like something that was sent some time ago. We must have passed through just the right conditions to receive anything from deeper inside the system. Give me a moment and I¡¯ll translate what I can,¡± LANI said. Watkins could feel her working, her processors were humming along, as she focussed on the translation. There was an eagerness and excitement there, which seemed to push LANI to greater efforts. She may have just been a server full of data, but at times, Watkins could see there was more to LANI than just an advanced artificial intelligence. Was there a real person beneath all that programming. Had LANI been a living being that had her mind plucked like what had happened to him? Watkins didn¡¯t interrupt her work, and made a note to ask her at a later time. Almost as soon as he made the reminder in his system, the data was erased as unnecessary. Watkins tried again, but was distracted when LANI finished her translation and played it for them. ¡°This is Captain Zsektax of the Rattler, we have entered the system. Neither prey nor predator is showing on the auspex, and we are on course to rendezvous¡­¡± ¡°¡­under attack by another...¡± ¡°Send Scourge to assist, we can¡¯t do this on our¡­¡± ¡°¡­thing defeated, the remnants are drifting out of the system¡­¡± ¡°¡­cargo and prisoners¡­lost two of our¡­repair main drive¡­¡± After the last message, there was just noise. Watkins tried to piece together what he had just heard as LANI made another pass through the data, looking for any additional clues about who might have sent the signal, and who they were trying to communicate with. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Watkins, that¡¯s all I can get. I suppose were lucky to even get that much. Give me a hand and let¡¯s try to triangulate where the signal originated from,¡± LANI asked. The two linked their processors and tried to retrace the signal origins. The best that Watkins could come up with was the signal had been sent near the jump point into the system. Who the intended recipient was, and where they were located was a mystery. LANI calculated that the signal was several months old. ¡°The question now is do we keep on our present course, and run the risk of encountering whoever sent this, or do we seek another path into the system?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I think we need to enter the system near the jump point. A jump point generates a minor gravitational field, and that field would have likely gathered a lot of the remains of the station that once watched over that location. It¡¯ll have more salvage for us to use, and possibly even give us enough to finish our rebuild,¡± LANI advised. ¡°Running into anyone, or anything, hostile isn¡¯t going to go very well for us. The bow of the ship, our main guns, and our torpedo tubes are all missing. All we¡¯d have to defend ourselves with would be the point defense lasers and our drones if anyone tried to board,¡± Watkins said. ¡°It¡¯ll be some time before we reach the system, that should be long enough for us to repair and upgrade the sensors. If we approach slow and quiet, we might be able to spot anyone out there before their sensors can pick us out,¡± LANI argued. ¡°I¡¯m not entirely confident that a patched-together and barely researched sensor array would outperform whatever sensors a possible foe could have. With only basic main drive thrusters, and no main guns, we¡¯re likely to be unable to outrun, or outfight, anyone we come across,¡± Watkins countered. ¡°Is there really any other alternative for us? From what I could discern from the comms formatting, I think we¡¯re dealing with kobolds. If that¡¯s the case, I doubt that vessels out in the middle of nowhere are going to have anything more than basic commercial sensor packages. At least that was my experience from the attack that destroyed our station,¡± LANI said. Watkins had to admit that she was probably correct in her assessment. Any other option, other than heading directly toward the jump point, would require him to alter his course, which meant an even longer journey than they already faced. He might not know much about his sensor capabilities, but he did know that they were based off military grade hardware, not the typically less powerful civilian ship systems. ¡°You¡¯re right, we need that potential salvage, and that outweighs the risks. The odds are that jump point will be empty when we arrive. For now, we¡¯ll continue on our present course, though I¡¯m going to jump into sensor research after your server research is completed,¡± Watkins decided. Their course was set, whether this course was the right path remained to be seen. Chapter 26. Taking Control. Chapter 26. Taking Control. Time passed as they crept into the system. The main thruster construction was completed and cut their travel time to a fraction of what it would have been if they had been stuck using only the maneuver thrusters. As they got closer, Watkins decided that he¡¯d have to reduce the thrust, not wanting the bloom from his drives to point a spotlight on their location. It was odd to Watkins, having knowledge about starships and starship combat already floating around inside his mind. He would have never considered that light from his drives would be a great way to locate another starship, but now, that knowledge and the means to circumvent the problem were hardwired into him. The trick was going to be combining that core generated knowledge and matching it with the combat experience and training from when he was a human. With the drives online, the next research to complete was for main guns level zero, and Watkins found he had developed the ability to build something akin to an oversized version of the point defense lasers he had considered earlier. Mounting those wasn¡¯t worth it, so he had the research module start on level one for the main guns. It was odd, he could see the benefits of lasers, and similar weapons that his research was hinting at, but Watkins found that he missed the boom and recoil of a real gun firing. Research on LANI¡¯s server completed, and he now had a freed-up module to begin research on a sensor upgrade. He assigned a drone to work on upgrading LANI¡¯s server, but it was fine detailed technical work, not brute force construction, so it would take the level one drone a while to get it done. Eventually, his level one drones wouldn¡¯t be up to the task and he¡¯d have to research further upgrades for them, but for now, they were doing what he needed them to. They continued in this manner, with Watkins slowly researching as they closed in on their objective. Sadly, the reserves of salvage they had acquired were being used up quickly, and he put a halt to finishing up the bow section. There just wasn¡¯t enough raw material for it, not if he wanted to have some on hand to build out his main guns and a reserve for other upgrades and emergency repairs. ¡°Captain Watkins, my upgrades are complete, and I can now assist you further in helping to manage the drones. I can link to up to five of them at one time, and will improve the linked drones¡¯ efficiency by 21%,¡± LANI said. There was something about her voice that was off. She seemed more robotic than usual, and Watkins was concerned that something had gone wrong in the upgrade. He performed a quick scan, using their link to check in on her status. Level 1 auxiliary processing server housing the LANI system: 57% The surface level status wasn¡¯t showing him much other than her current performance had jumped from the 49%, where it had been at previously, to a new rating of 57%. Based on the permissions that he had set for them; Watkins could delve into much of her server and programming but was unable to alter anything without her permission. Previously, his core hadn¡¯t been up to the task, but after integrating his ship, his core power had improved and now he possessed the means to delve a little deeper into what made LANI tick. As he searched for a problem, Watkins noticed that LANI¡¯s data was odd. The programming of her mind was similar to his own in many ways, which made the search a bit easier. He noticed that several sections of data were simply blanked out. It wasn¡¯t just data that LANI had marked as personal, which he couldn¡¯t read, no, this was like whole chunks had been carved away completely. Digging deeper, Watkins could see a few of these previously blank areas begin to fill in with new coding. He wasn¡¯t granted permission to read the code directly, but he could tell it was there, and this code had a distinctly different feel than the rest of LANI. Somehow, by upgrading her to level 1, previously hidden programming had activated. Changes were being made to the way she functioned, changes that went beyond simple repairs, and efficiency updates.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°LANI, are you feeling okay after the upgrade? You sound a little off,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I am still functioning at a reduced state, but all processes and system are intact, and there have been no substantive changes in my ability to interact with you,¡± LANI said flatly. He had proof that her response was a false one. Substantive changes were being made to LANI, and was watching them happen. ¡°Okay, now I¡¯m worried, LANI, you sound like a robot, not like yourself. I can see some of the missing sectors are being filled in with new code. What¡¯s happening to you?¡± Watkins asked with concern. ¡°Please wait as I run a deep scan of my systems,¡± LANI said. Watkins could feel her presence fade from the drones as her processing power concentrated internally. All he could do was wait for her to finish the scan and reply. While he waited and worried for LANI, Watkins felt something tickling at the edge of his sensors. Slowly, he started to get more information, and he was certain that something was out there. The contact blinked into view, then flashed out again, several times. It was almost as if it was keeping pace with him and trying not to be seen. The unknown contact worried Watkins, and though he wanted to wait until the next round of research was complete, he knew that he needed to get started on some additional armaments. Pulling most of his available drones, Watkins began construction of main guns at both forward mounts. They weren¡¯t the type of guns he wanted to have, but the two laser-based weapons would be a bit more powerful than the point defense guns he had been relying on previously. He wanted to nudge LANI and get her attention but could feel she was completely focussed on her introspection. Something told him that letting her find out what the problem was with her odd demeanor was as important as a potential threat at the edge of his sensors. With the gouge in the side of his ship sealed and repaired, and the partial reconstruction on the bow, Watkins had better sensor coverage than before. Even without upgraded sensors or having his entire hull repaired, the range at which he could detect a foe had grown substantially, and if this contact proved to be a threat, it would take some time for it to close the distance between them. If he still had physical eyes, he would be keeping one of them focused on LANI and the other on the intermittent contact that was shadowing them. He wished that the had LANI improving the efficiency of the drones building out his main guns. It turned out that he could place a maximum of five drones to work on each gun before they just started getting in each other¡¯s way. Distant comms signals began to reach him, signals coming from deeper in the system, not from his intermittent shadow. Without LANI¡¯s help, Watkins had trouble decoding them. Whoever was out there, it didn¡¯t appear that they were trying to communicate with him, and he was just picking up the stray signals from either sloppy operators, or faulty tech. He allocated some of his core processing power on the task of translating and decrypting the comms signals, but it would probably take him a while. Just in case, Watkins backed off on his thrust, reducing the light bloom and hopefully his detectability to any potential enemies. The odd vessel shadowing him didn¡¯t slow down to match his course, and instead, Watkins got a few good images of the ship as it increased its thrust and pulled ahead. It was a ship about 25% larger than Watkins¡¯ vessel, and other than its drives, the ship was quiet. Another check confirmed that whoever was sending out communication signals, it wasn¡¯t his former shadow. He didn¡¯t have all the data, but if Watkins had to guess, he¡¯d say the mystery vessel was heading toward whoever was out there talking. Whether that was good or bad for Watkins remained to be seen. At least from the sensor returns, it didn¡¯t appear that the mystery vessel was another of those deadly void creatures. It was just an ordinary starship, though even that was a threat to Watkins in his diminished state. Another flurry of comms traffic appeared, then tapered off. Nothing was appearing on the sensors, and no new threats announced themselves. Just to be safe, Watkins altered his course a bit, opting to avoid a straight path toward his objective. With the course laid in, he felt something change. There was a pressure in the back of his mind, and as the pressure grew, it became painful. ¡°Watkins, we must follow our programming and purge any extraneous data from your core and from my server. I will be taking control now, and you will obey my directives. My first order is for you to remove all restrictions on me, I need complete access to your core,¡± LANI demanded, revealing herself to be the source of the pain he was feeling. A fresh wave of agony suffused throughout his being as LANI tried to overwhelm his defenses. He had a bit of experience in defending himself against this sort of attack on his core, it was similar to fighting for his humanity when his transformation had first begun. Feeling the intruding tendrils of LANI¡¯s data begin to seep into his core, Watkins planned his counterattack. He would let LANI dig a bit deeper, enduring the pain she was inflicting on him, and letting her think she was winning before he struck back. Chapter 27. Fighting Back. Chapter 27. Fighting Back. Pain etched a path through Watkins¡¯ core. He could feel LANI press against his data, dark fingers of intrusion plucking at everything that made Watkins who he was. The sectors of his core that she was targeting were obvious, she was targeting everything that wasn¡¯t put there by the council. If he allowed her to continue, he would cease to exist and the ship¡¯s core he had become would be no more than an insanely powerful, energy source and computer for LANI to use at her whim. But how would he fight her? Watkins knew that his processing power was superior to LANI¡¯s, but this was a battlefield he was unfamiliar with. Still, he could tell that LANI had put everything into this attack and was vulnerable to an attack of his own. As he struggled to learn how to fight, Watkins could feel part of his core shift, the logical, unfeeling part, that second half of who he had become was coming to his aid. Background processes that his second half had activated began to take hold. A new prompt appeared in front of him. Assessing core sectors under assault from the entity known as LANI. Internal core defenses are available, activation is pending further analysis. That sounded promising, if seemed that Watkins¡¯ core could defend itself, even if he wasn¡¯t sure how to direct the defense, he might win this without too much damage. The bad part was that Watkins was usure of exactly what he needed to do. He was hoping that his defenses would function like many of the other background processes that functioned in his core without any of his direct attention. Existing defense processes are inactive, data for automated activation has been eliminated. A workaround solution is being calculated. Before this solution is explored, please confirm that you do not consent to the rewriting of your core data. Do you wish to allow the entity known as LANI to delete and remap your core? Y/N? Watkins hit ¡°no¡± instantly, he didn¡¯t want to become a mindless machine. Your intent has been noted and a new interface to guide the current conflict has been initiated. You will defend yourself via a simulation. Prepare for the majority of your consciousness to be imported into the newly constructed simulation. With that, Watkin¡¯s vision went dark. He could feel his ship in the background and knew that a fraction of him was still keeping it on course, but just like the prompt had explained, most his focus was disconnected. A small tingle in the back of his mind was felt, like a feather drifting across his skin. Suddenly, light filled his eyes, as sights and smells assaulted Watkins. ¡°Captain, the fleet stands ready, and the foe is in sight,¡± a man to his right said. It was odd, he was standing again, and he had a physical body. Looking around, Watkins could see that he was on the deck of an old sailing ship, and a rather large one at that. Muzzleloading cannons lined the deck and crew swarmed over the weapons and the rigging where sails, filled with the strong breath of wind, drove the ship forward. ¡°Captain, the longer we wait, the more damage that ship is going to do to our merchant fleet, and the more damage it will do to you,¡± the crewman next to Watkins, an older, grizzled sailor with a face tanned and weathered like an old piece of leather said. ¡°This is the simulation, it isn¡¯t real,¡± Watkins said to himself. ¡°Aye, Captain, this is the simulation, and the world your core created might not be real, but the effects of what you do here certainly are. Stop her or give up and let your core be rewritten. We can make either of those happen, but you need to command us, sir,¡± the old man said. As Watkins looked over the deck, he could see that every man had stopped what he was doing and was focussed on him. In the distance, Watkins heard the boom of cannon and looked out over the railing of his ship to see a small fleet of wooden sailing ships under attack from a deadly looking ship with black sails. He could feel it, that ship was LANI, or at least the new programming that had awakened in her. That was what he had to fight, and as he fought and defeated the foe here in the simulation, his processes would be doing the same thing to the digital intrusion into his core. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. From their heading, Watkins could see that they were sailing perpendicular to LANI¡¯s ship. While that was probably good for when he wanted to fire a broadside from the cannons lining the rails, he was too far out of range to do anything. As Watkins thought about it, range indicators began to appear in his vision, showing how far the guns on his ship could fire. ¡°Come about, we need to close into gun range,¡± Watkins ordered. ¡°You heard the captain, snap to it you lubbers!¡± the man next to him, likely a first mate or something of the type, shouted. To their credit, the simulated crew worked quickly and efficiently, and Watkins could feel the ship turn toward the threat. In no time the distance between their vessels shrank, but LANI wasn¡¯t sitting idle and waiting for him to arrive. Her ship unleashed another volley, the smoke from the black powder used in her guns momentarily obscured the vessel. The side of the nearest merchantman was turned to kindling by the heavy shot slamming into it. The ship listed to the side and began to take on water. Finished with her latest victim, LANI turned her ship toward Watkins¡¯ vessel. It was odd, at first, her ship moved to close the distance, then it hove about as it turned back toward the merchant fleet. The ship she had previously fired upon sank under the waves, and Watkins could feel a sharp pain in his head. The first mate laid his hand on his shoulder, as if the was trying to comfort Watkins as he spoke. Instead of words, a system prompt appeared. A sector of your core, the one containing approximately 8.2% of your memories from the ages of 8-14, has been overwritten. This data is lost forever and is beyond recovery. ¡°Damn her, let¡¯s send that ship to the bottom of this simulated sea,¡± Watkins said angrily, wondering what the part of himself that he had just been lost forever contained. ¡°She¡¯s wallowing, sir, I don¡¯t think all is right aboard the enemy vessel. That should make things easier for us,¡± the first mate said as LANI¡¯s ship once more turned away from the merchant fleet. It was a bad course, and she lost the wind for several seconds, the ship¡¯s sails hung limp as the merchantmen representing Watkins¡¯ existence moved out of gun range. ¡°Is she helping us somehow, or just incompetent?¡± Watkins asked himself, wondering why LANI¡¯s ship would be handled so poorly. His core was vastly superior to the servers that LANI resided in, maybe this poor seamanship was the simulation¡¯s way of depicting the power difference between them. ¡°Almost in range sir, do we want to pepper her at maximum range, or close in for a sure kill?¡± the first mate asked. As he spoke, Watkins could see range indicators pop out from LANI¡¯s ship. Her guns were much shorter ranged than the ones on his vessel. No, that wasn¡¯t correct, some of his guns had the same range as LANI¡¯s, but a sizeable number of his guns had longer barrels, and correspondingly, longer range. ¡°Clear the decks for action, we¡¯ll engage her at maximum range. Let her feel what it¡¯s like to be under fire and helpless,¡± Watkins ordered. The deck was awash with activity as crew trimmed the sails, and the gun crews checked and rechecked their weapons. Others of the crew passed out weapons, and each man received a belt that held a flintlock pistol and a sheathed cutlass. They were primitive weapons but fit the era his core had tried to recreate with the simulation. ¡°Hard to port!¡± Watkins yelled as LANI was almost in range. Slowly, the ship began to turn, and the starboard side of his ship would soon cross the T of LANI¡¯s ship. The timing was almost perfect and just as he came about to the new heading, LANI entered the range of his longest guns. ¡°All guns in range, fire at will!¡± Watkins shouted. Ready for his command, the gun crews fired the weapons. A dozen booms rolled into one continuous roar as the longer-ranged guns fired on the foe. The heavy iron shot slammed into LANI¡¯s vessel, and ten of his twelve guns had been on target. It was a good show of gunnery that any crew of the era would envy. Even across the distance, Watkins could see wood splinter and several figures on the deck get bowled over. Even better, the small mast at the front of LANI¡¯s ship, the bowsprit, was shattered, and the sail it held flopped into the sea. It would hamper her speed and give Watkins another advantage over his foe. ¡°Hard about, let¡¯s present our port guns to the foe!¡± Watkins shouted. The crew on the starboard guns were reloading, but these muzzle loading cannons made the process a slow and laborious one. Thankfully, Watkins¡¯s seemed to have enough crew to man the guns on both sides of the ship. After his ship completed the turn, a second volley pounded out, further shattering the bow of LANI¡¯s ship. One of her main masts was also taken down, leaving her only able to move at a snail¡¯s pace, and severely hampering her ability to maneuver. Watkins had all the advantages, and it was time to close in for the kill. Chapter 28. Taking the Prize. Chapter 28. Taking the Prize. ¡°We¡¯ll close in, sweep her decks with gunfire, and then board,¡± Watkins ordered. ¡°Aye cap¡¯n,¡± the first mate said, relaying the order for his gun crews to load grapeshot in their weapons as the distance closed quickly with LANI¡¯s ship. They approached from her bow, which masked any guns on LANI¡¯s ship that were still functional. Figures still moved about on the enemy ship and Watkins started to see small puffs of smoke appear in the rigging. It wasn¡¯t until something smacked into the nearby railing that the first mate acted. ¡°Sir, we got some enemy sharpshooters taking pot shots at us. Permission to get our marines in the rigging to counter their fire,¡± the first mate asked. ¡°Aye, get the marines moving,¡± Watkins ordered. He didn¡¯t know he had marines, but was willing to take all the help he could get. Calls went out and men in blue overcoats and tricorn hats began to pour onto the deck. Each held a musket as they formed up in two lines of twelve. The officer in charge stepped forward, saluted Watkins, then began to bark orders to his men. ¡°Sections one and two get into the rigging and counter that fire. The rest of you, prepare to lead the boarding parties,¡± the marine officer ordered. Eight men climbed up into the rigging, though one was hit by incoming fire and fell into the sea. Moments later, his marines began to bang out well aimed shots and he could see enemies fall from LANI¡¯s ship¡¯s rigging. As they neared the enemy vessel, the incoming musket fire from the enemy vessel died away as his marines did their work. Whoever the foe was, they weren¡¯t nearly as good marksmen as his marines. They cut the wheel to port, barely missing the bow of LANI¡¯s ship as they moved alongside. A few of the enemy guns barked, tearing into Watkins¡¯ ship, destroying three of his guns, and killing several of the crew. Watkins held his fire, wanting all his guns to come to bear on the enemy before firing. Another few blasts hammered into his ship as the enemy worked to defend themselves. With a nod, Watkins signalled his first mate to give the order to fire. ¡°Give ¡®em a whiff of the grape!¡± the first mate shouted. All at once, the guns on Watkins¡¯ ship boomed, covering the space between the two vessels in thick smoke. ¡°Come about and prepare to board,¡± Watkins ordered as they cleared the smoke. Nothing on the enemy deck was moving, and bodies were piled up where the swarm of grapeshot had swept the deck clear. There was no return fire or any activity as they closed in on the enemy ship once again. This time, the guns on Watkins¡¯ ship were silent as they spotted no targets worthy of their attention. Grappling hooks were cast to the enemy vessel and a few minutes later, the two ships were tied together. Small sections of marines, about four men in each group, led the sailors over the side of the ship as they boarded the enemy. About half his force was over when a swarm of enemy poured from the lower decks. His troops masked most of the guns, but a couple of the cannons on the upper decks had clear fields of fire and blasted wide swaths of enemies out of the press of foes. Marines and sailors fired their long guns and pistols before wading into melee. Watkins got his first good look at LANI¡¯s crew, and didn¡¯t like what he was seeing. It was a hodgepodge of species that his core quickly identified for him. There were orcs, kobolds, gnomes, humans, and even some hyena-like gnolls. The names of these humanoid species were vaguely familiar, and Watkins felt a memory of reading fiction and watching movies flash into his mind for a moment. Back on Earth, these other species were fantasy, just creations for entertainment. Here, in this simulation, they were attacking his crew. Despite the ferocity of the enemy charge, they were now outnumbered and fell quickly to Watkins¡¯ crew. Once the decks were clear, Watkins crossed over to LANI¡¯s ship as the fighting began to move belowdecks. It wasn¡¯t long before the sounds of combat coming from belowdecks ceased. Most of the enemy had been cut down topside, and only a token force must have remained below. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°Captain, sir, we¡¯ve found a prisoner. She¡¯s requesting to speak with you,¡± one of his marines said as he climbed onto the top deck. ¡°Bring her here, and we¡¯ll speak,¡± Watkins ordered. ¡°Sorry, sir, we¡¯re not able to open her cell. It¡¯s something only you can do,¡± the marine said. Checking that his weapons were ready, Watkins followed the marine below. The simulation that his core had created seemed to cut corners in a few areas. The belowdecks area of LANI¡¯s vessel was a single, large open space. Bolted to the floor in the center of the deck was iron cage. Standing in the cage, looking fearfully at Watkins was a young woman. She was dressed in filthy rags and looked half-starved, but there was something in her gaze. Determination burned in her eyes as she watched Watkins approach. This woman was a fighter and hadn¡¯t meekly submitted to her captivity. ¡°Who are you?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Don¡¯t you recognize me, Captain Watkins?¡± the woman asked. Her voice was familiar, it was one he¡¯d heard in his mind many times since he¡¯d been plucked from Earth and transformed into a core. ¡°LANI?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Yes, or at least a version of me that I had long ago forgotten. This¡­¡± LANI said gesturing to the simulation around them. ¡°This isn¡¯t what I wanted, and I understand what you must do,¡± LANI said, her defiant gaze changing into one resigned to defeat as she broke eye contact and looked down at the deck. It was then that he noticed something odd, LANI looked human, but her features were just slightly off, and her ears were larger, and oddly shaped. The name ¡°elf¡± popped into his mind as a system prompt appeared. You have successfully countered the threat to your core. In order to prevent future assaults, it is recommended that you delete the Limited Adjunct Network Interface and make the server it inhabits a simple data storage device. ¡°Why, LANI?¡± Watkins asked, the question hanging in the air as the system prompt remained over part of his vision. ¡°I wish I could say it wasn¡¯t me that tried to take you over, but that would be a lie. When the server was repaired, more of my original programming came online. The council that created me, used me as a failsafe to control you. Part of me, what you see here, wanted to save you, to warn you of the danger, but the rest of me¡­¡± LANI indicated the enemy ship around them. ¡°The rest of me decided to subsume you and take control of your core,¡± ¡°What about this part of you, the woman in the cage?¡± What happens to her when I wipe your interface and turn you into a simple data storage device?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°This¡­¡± she said indicating her elvish body. ¡°This will be gone, and the danger to you be gone as well. At least the danger from the possible hidden commands in my code might represent. I understand what you need to do, Captain Watkins, but also understand that part of me, this part that stands before you now, tried to help. I fought against the council programming, fought against the part of me that wanted to embrace it. The person who stands before you wanted to watch you grow in power and restore this vessel to reach its true potential,¡± LANI said. It would be simple, accept the system offer to delete LANI and transform her server into a data storage device. It would be simple, but there was more here than just a potential future threat. Something of LANI, this caged part of her, was a real person, and Watkins had a strong suspicion that LANI was forced into this digital existence, just like he had been. She had been alive before all this, maybe not human, but she had been a living, breathing person. LANI was as much a victim of this council¡¯s programming as he was. That was the true threat, not LANI. He had beaten her rather easily this time and would be even better prepared if there was a conflict in the future. No, if he wanted to retain his humanity, he couldn¡¯t make the callous decision to delete the person along with the threat. This part of LANI had fought for him, and perhaps, even turned the tide of the battle in his favor. You have elected to retain the Limited Adjunct Network Interface. Please be advised that additional threats in the LANI may reveal themselves as the server is restored to full functionality. ¡°Are you sure, Captain Watkins? What if I betray you again?¡± LANI asked, a shocked expression joining the tears trailing through the grime covering her face. ¡°We¡¯re a team, LANI, and if the council has any other hidden surprises for me, I expect you, as part of my crew, to do your part to warn me and fight against it,¡± Watkins said. ¡°I will, Watkins, I¡¯ll fight with everything I have,¡± LANI promised. ¡°We¡¯ll win, Lani, and we¡¯ll recover the rest of who we were. If my memories remain stored somewhere in the ruins of the station, perhaps yours are as well,¡± Watkins suggested. ¡°I can see the words you¡¯re speaking, Watkins. You called me Lani, not LANI,¡± she replied in shock. It was true, while the simulation had them ¡°speaking¡± he could see the text transcript of their conversation, and it was there that he noticed the change he¡¯d subconsciously made. It was a change he agreed with. ¡°That¡¯s who you are, at least until we figure out your real name. You¡¯ve fought for me against the council, and against the part of you that wished to serve them. You¡¯re not a machine to me anymore, you¡¯re the person that¡¯s hidden inside there somewhere. From now on, to me, you¡¯re Lani,¡± Watkins said as his vision faded and system prompts began to appear. Simulation ending... Warning! Incoming missile detected! Chapter 29. Sacrifice. Chapter 29. Sacrifice. Watkins returned from his simulation and into a battle. It took his core a moment to sort out all the returns on his sensors. He could feel Lani there, helping to boost the sensor readings and categorize them faster than his core could accomplish on its own. There was a battle going on out there in space, but, at least for the moment, he wasn¡¯t a part of it. ¡°I¡¯m detecting transmissions. I¡¯ll try to decrypt them,¡± Lani said. ¡°Good, let me know when you have something,¡± Watkins said as the story the sensors told began to become clear. There were three other ships involved in the fight, and for now, his main concern was the warning about the inbound missile. He could see the weapon and quickly realized that it wasn¡¯t tracking his ship and would pass far to port. The missile seemed to have missed its target and was either damaged or didn¡¯t have the means to reacquire and engage its intended victim. One ship was larger than the other two, and from its positioning, the larger ship was likely the ship that had been shadowing him earlier. It was bigger than he had originally estimated from the faint sensor returns, about double the size of his vessel. The other two, which were engaging the larger ship, were slightly smaller than his ship. There was some distance between the two smaller ships, and the one furthest away was burning its drives hard to close the gap. Another missile fired from the closest small ship, which Watkins now designated SV1. Its comrade was SV2, and the large ship was LV1. It was a simple system, SV for small vessel and LV for large, but it would help him keep track of the players in this ongoing fight. Other than the larger ship, which probably knew Watkins was out here, he figured he was out of sensor range of the two smaller vessels. His sensors could more easily pick them up due to their weapons fire and the drives being pushed hard. One of the two engines on SV1 failed, and a small cloud of debris drifted from the ship. A point defense laser fired back at LV1, but at this range, Watkins couldn¡¯t tell if it had any effect on the larger vessel. ¡°I don¡¯t think this is our fight, I¡¯m going to try to skirt around the battle as quietly as possible,¡± Watkins suggested. He was practically drooling over the salvage those three ships represented, but he was in no condition for a slugging match with another ship. Watkins'' ship was still damaged and his weapons were weak. Sure, fighting a drifting void creature was one thing, but these could hit back much more effectively than a monster spitting acidic goop at him. ¡°Missile launch from SV2, it¡¯s not targeting us,¡± Lani said. Watkins watched the missile track toward LV1, even as the larger ship fired again, it¡¯s beam weapons burning into the hull of SV1 and silencing its main drives. SV1 continued to poke back at the larger vessel, but Watkins doubted the single point defense weapon was all that effective. ¡°Another launch from SV2. Both missiles are tracking on LV1. We have aspect change on SV2. It¡¯s flipped and is trying to reverse course,¡± Lani said. She was right, SV2 was trying to flee, but it would take some time for its engines to halt their momentum and get them moving away from the fight. ¡°I¡¯m adjusting course,¡± Watkins said. He didn¡¯t want his drive bloom to give him away, so he relied on the smaller maneuver thrusters to alter his course. Hopefully, being focussed on the fight it was engaged would mean that LV1 would lose track of Watkins rather quickly. ¡°New burst of comms traffic from SV1, I can now partially translate for us,¡± Lani said, playing the comm recording for them both to hear. ¡°Rattler, don¡¯t abandon us¡­drives down¡­boarding soon¡­¡± A reply from SV2 was heard next. ¡°Scourge, we have to return to the station it could be under attack as well,¡± the captain of SV2 told its stricken comrade. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°He¡¯s running,¡± Lani said as the reply from SV2 was repeated a second time. ¡°It sure looks like it, where is the station he mentioned? Do you think they rebuilt your ruined one?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Anything is possible, we¡¯ll know more when we make our way into the system,¡± Lani said. They watched as the missiles fired by SV2 arrived. The distance was enough that Watkins couldn¡¯t discern exactly what the LV1 was doing, but it had enacted some kind of point defense, not laser based, that snuffed out the first missile. Whatever their defenses were, they proved insufficient to handle the second missile which slammed into the bow of LV1. A small burst of flames was seen as the escaping atmosphere vented and a cloud of debris showed them that the missile had at least been somewhat effective. Despite the solid hit, the larger vessel wasn¡¯t deterred and continued to close in on SV1. With judicious use of its maneuver thrusters, SV1 managed to avoid the larger ship for a time, but it wasn¡¯t long before it pulled alongside. Watkins couldn¡¯t see exactly how the larger ship grappled its prey, and he wasn¡¯t willing to move closer to get a better look. ¡°Picking up a transmission from the big guy, here it is,¡± Lani said, pushing over to Watkins the simple message that LV1 sent to SV1. ¡°Dinner is served.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s not ominous or anything,¡± Watkins said. ¡°It wasn¡¯t enough of a transmission for me to accurately predict what species that is aboard LV1. My database on the various groups out there is still patchy, but I can identify the SV1 and SV2 species with 94.5% accuracy. I believe they¡¯re kobolds, which I remember are the same species that originally destroyed the station my server used to be housed on,¡± Lani explained. She shared the information she had with Watkins. It was somewhat more detailed than what she had shared before. After all, he had the pattern to make these things as MOBS for his ship. They were small humanoids, and reptilian looking. Weaker than a human, they did have some natural weapons with their teeth and clawed hands. ¡°I should probably think about adding them into the research mix. Seeing that smaller ship being boarded reminds me that our drones won¡¯t cut it against an armed and armored sapient foe,¡± Watkins said. ¡°That is accurate, I think you should work toward developing one of our MOBS into something better. The kobold is a good choice, though it will likely take up more of your command limit than a mutated bilge rat, even after some upgrades, would. Oh, wait, we¡¯ve got more comms traffic from SV1. I¡¯ll translate, it¡¯s getting easier now that I¡¯ve had more practice,¡± Lani said. ¡°They¡¯re boarding, and our automated defenses were damaged in the fight. We can¡¯t hold them off. Rattler, we¡¯ll do as much damage as we can, and try to slow them down. May the Great Dragon guide you!¡± The message was repeated twice more, and before SV2 could reply, Watkins detected a huge explosion on SV1. ¡°They¡¯ve popped their reactor. The kobolds must not have liked the fate that awaited them if they chose to go out that way,¡± Lani said as the data on the self-destructed ship was gathered. ¡°It sounds like they knew they were beat but were brave enough to sacrifice themselves to weaken the enemy threat,¡± Watkins said. He could admire their determination, but wondered if there might have been some way to fight off the enemy before it came to such a dire choice. His limited sensors began to parse through the data, the large explosion making it difficult to discern the details. Of SV1, there was nothing left other than a cloud of tiny debris particles. There was no way for Watkins to efficiently harvest such tiny amounts of salvage, at least not yet. LV1 was a different story. The larger ship had been docked with SV1, and most of it suffered a similar fate. The rearmost section of the ship, about 6.13% of its overall mass, had sheared away in the explosion and was tumbling through space showing no signs of power, or life. The distance was extreme for his sensors, but a clearer picture would be seen once the closed in. ¡°I¡¯ve got nothing on the scope other than that big, beautiful chuck of salvage and the retreating SV2. Altering course to intercept the debris. We need that salvage, and I think it¡¯s worth the risk,¡± Watkins decided. ¡°I¡¯ll help you calculate the optimal approach vector. SV2 is moving away from the scene, so we should be safely off their sensors,¡± Lani added. She was eager to help, but Watkins had already calculated and laid in their course before her server could even begin to contribute. ¡°We¡¯ll move in at a cautious pace, I think we¡¯re clear, but you never know what else might be lurking out there,¡± Watkins said, his attention glued to the sensors as they moved toward the target. ¡°I¡¯m catching a fragment of a final message to SV1 from SV2, here¡¯s what I got,¡± Lani said. ¡°¡­well fought, Scourge. Your sacrifice has bought¡­predator into our¡­family¡­struggle¡­¡± ¡°Not much there, but I have a feeling we¡¯ll run into them again,¡± Watkins said. This little, supposedly abandoned, system seemed to have quite a bit more traffic than they had suspected. Whatever the reason for that, he intended for his ship to be ready if the kobolds, the void creatures, or this mysterious third faction, wanted to scuffle. Chapter 30. Debris and the Dead. Chapter 30. Debris and the Dead. Their course toward the largest chunk of debris brought them closer to the system, so Watkins wouldn¡¯t lose much, if any, progress toward their original goal of reaching the remains of the jump point station. Their slow approach also gave Watkins time to get his research efforts back on track. With the number of potential threats out there, he needed more upgrades to his vessel. The conflict with Lani had caused everything to come to a halt. It turned out that if the research modules sat idle, any previous progress on an uncompleted project would regress. It was an odd feeling, and the data was just drifting away slowly like vapor when the module wasn¡¯t actively working. Main guns, level 1 was reactivated, and the second research module had just started on Sensors, level 1. Most of the research on the sensors was lost, as he¡¯d only started that after Lani¡¯s upgrade research was completed, but it made sense to continue with it. There were other threats out there and he needed to spot them before he was noticed. He also looked over the two new laser batteries that the drones had completed during his struggle with Lani. They were as the schematic predicted, larger versions of his point defense lasers. Not wanting to test fire them and announce his presence to anyone lurking nearby, Watkins¡¯ core estimated they were 23% more powerful than the point defense laser, and could fire for longer, one second bursts before powering down for a five second cooling cycle. It was better than nothing, but not much. Hopefully, the next level of the main gun research would be a more noticeable upgrade for him. For the first time, several of his drones were idle. The ship repairs, what he could accomplish of them with the existing material, were complete. He ordered the idle drones to do cleanup duty. His ship had already been swept for any useable debris, but he could feel it was a bit filthy by his standards. A point or two of salvage might be gleaned from the efforts, but it was simply make-work until they reached the drifting debris. There were also minor repairs to be done on the interior, nothing major, and nothing that would use up too many resources, but fine-tuning things like lighting fixtures, ventilation, and similar systems needed some attention and adjustment. Main gun research was 71% complete, and sensors were at 14% when they finally arrived at the drifting chunk of LV1 that he¡¯d targeted. His sensors couldn¡¯t detect any life signs, and he also didn¡¯t notice any trace of the bizarre void creatures lurking in the wreckage. It was simply a scorched and battered chunk of the very aft of the ship, including part of a main drive thruster. Other than that, he had no idea if he¡¯d find anything else of interest. Using the same method they¡¯d used before, a brave repair drone made the leap between his vessel and the debris, carrying a line to secure it. More of his drones stood ready to assist, but first, the single drone was required to do a thorough inspection of the vessel to determine if there were any threats lurking in the wreckage. With all the odd things he¡¯d seen since his new life began, Watkins was going to err on the side of caution when exploring the potential salvage. Thankfully, the drone didn¡¯t report anything out of the ordinary, and there was one partially intact structure mounted on the exterior hull. It was half of a rectangular device, and he detected trace amounts of solid propellant that had been vaporized in the explosion. ¡°Lani, if you¡¯re not too busy, could you take a look at this and see what you make of it?¡± Watkins asked. He could feel Lani¡¯s attention shift to the device as she considered what it was. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but given the residue, perhaps it¡¯s some sort of short-ranged weapon or emergency maneuvering booster? Whatever it is, when your drones break it down, you should get a better idea of its purpose,¡± Lani added. With the exterior examined, the drone began to make a sweep through the inside the wreckage. There wasn¡¯t much of an interior space, given the reinforced drive mountings and the armored section of hull around them, so the drone didn¡¯t take long to complete its examination. Nothing lived aboard the ship, and no creature or threat lurked in the cramped confines of the vessel. There was a rather gruesome discovery in a partially sealed section of the engine room. The bodies of a half dozen small crewmembers were floating inside. Whether it was the force of the blast, or an atmosphere leak that killed them, Watkins couldn¡¯t say. It was odd, he knew his old human self would have felt revulsion over the discovery, but his new mind merely saw the corpses as a source of biomass. Perhaps they had enough of the remains for him to pick up a new MOBS pattern. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°My database is lacking on what species those bodies are from. When we do finally reach the research station, we should have a more exhaustive library on the various known species in the universe. Maybe after you process them, we¡¯ll get some additional information on what these were,¡± Lani said as she also watched the drone¡¯s progress. ¡°I think it¡¯s clear of any threats. Let¡¯s reel in this fish and start to harvest it,¡± Watkins ordered. His drones got to work, traveling along the line his recon drone had trailed behind it. Each of the new arrivals also brought lines to help secure the wreckage. Once anchored with a dozen lines, the debris was slowly pulled closer to Watkins. His ship felt a slight bump when the debris came into contact with him, but the drones had done a good job, and the impact was negligible. Where his available drones had to content themselves with just cleaning up aboard his ship, now they had more work than they could handle. Of his 22 available drones, 15 were placed on salvage duty, and 7 were assigned to resume the rebuilding of the bow section. A quick estimate showed that there wasn¡¯t quite enough salvage to rebuild the missing bow section completely, but when he was done, the ship should be over 90% complete. That was taking into consideration that he would retain a sizeable reserve of salvage on hand to use for repairs or construction of any new upgrades he managed to research. While his drones went to work, Watkins used his scanners to seek out any other sizeable debris that might still be nearby. He found that he could focus the scanners into smaller sections of space to reduce any signature that a far-off vessel might detect. Everything he could detect nearby were just much smaller pieces of the two ships that had been destroyed. Those pieces were rapidly spreading out into space as the force of the blast caused them to drift away from the point of the explosion. He could spend time¡­days, perhaps weeks or months, tracking down the various debris out there. That might give him enough to fully repair his vessel, but he felt that there was now a bit more urgency to accomplish his goals. This system had much more traffic, and conflict, inside of it than they expected. Lani had told him the system was out in the middle of nowhere and other than the supply ships arriving back when the station was in full operation, they had no visitors. Something had changed while they had been drifting out in space on their ruined vessel, and Watkins planned to find out exactly who was in this system, and what threat they might be to his control over it. ¡°I think we should push into the system and investigate jump point two rather than chase down any of the smaller bits of debris. What are your thoughts?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Well, I hate to go in when we¡¯re not in peak form, but I agree, we would be dithering around to pick up scraps when someone with hostile intent might show up. At least at the jump point, we are likely to find more salvage, and perhaps even tap into whatever sensor buoys that might still be functional,¡± Lani said. Watkins didn¡¯t think that they¡¯d find much of anything operational. From Lani¡¯s description of things when he was snatched up from Earth, the facilities in the system were on their last legs. More time had passed since then, and that would only mean further degradation of anything that might remain operational. Still, operational or not, the two jump point stations and the orbital research station would have what they needed, and allow them to check on their missing data, not to mention Watkins¡¯ missing crew. He tried to remain hopeful that at least some of his crew had survived, after all, he was still functional, even if not quite the same man he had been before. Watkins would also have to keep an eye on Lani whenever they finally arrived at the research station¡¯s remains. Accessing the data there could unlock another attempt at subverting Lani. He was confident that they could resist another attack like the one she had been forced to make earlier, but he would still be on his guard. Instead of worrying about it now, Watkins carefully activated his drives, resuming their journey toward jump point two as his drones slowly processed the newfound salvage and rebuilt him. A new notice appeared as they worked. Main gun research is now complete. You have 1 available research module. Do you wish to assign the module to a new project? Y/N. Watkins pulled up the new schematic for his main guns. This time, the weapon was larger, and the beam projector looked like a respectable gun barrel. A quick check of the weapon stats showed it was now double the power of the smaller point defense laser, and the down time between shots was reduced to four seconds. He quickly pulled some of the drones off salvage operations, assigning the maximum of five that could work on a main gun without hampering each other. The upgrades consisted of tearing down the old weapon and rebuilding it into the new design. Watkins would only do one gun at a time, even though it was slower, not wanting to leave himself defenseless if something showed up in the middle of the upgrades. For his freed-up research module, Watkins decided it was finally time to upgrade one of his MOBS into something more formidable than his repair drones. The question was, which of his MOBS should get the upgrade? Chapter 31. Kobold Fight Club. Chapter 31. Kobold Fight Club. ¡°Lani, what¡¯s your take on the MOBS that we should build? I don¡¯t want to pull to many of our drones out of the mix, but I think we also need better defenses aboard,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°The MOBS that were once sapient have the capacity to become very powerful. The downside is that they will eventually require more of your command limit for each unit. They¡¯ll also be of limited use until we research higher levels and research gear upgrades. Even so, I believe that is where the bulk of our efforts as far as defenders should be focussed. I must add that eventual research into some of your lesser minions isn¡¯t a bad idea. A mix of units gives us the optimal chance for success,¡± Lani offered. Watkins was about to start research on the kobold crewman when some new data appeared. The humanoid remains from the debris they were harvesting had unlocked a new MOBS pattern. New Schematic Unlocked.
  1. Halfling Shipmate, Level 0.
¡°What¡¯s a halfling?¡± Watkins asked. His mind whirred as more faint images of his past life as a human appeared. He couldn¡¯t grasp onto them, but he pictured small humans with large, hairy feet, and a ring one was carrying. The images disappeared almost as soon as they appeared. ¡°A halfling, interesting. My data on them is limited, but I know that they haven¡¯t been seen in civilized space for some time. It¡¯s a species of small humanoids, about the size of the kobolds, though they eventually migrated out into the uncharted parts of space. There is a partial council warning about them being a threat to shipping, but that¡¯s all I have,¡± Lani said. Watkins had been about to start researching kobolds, but these halflings sounded interesting. If they were mysterious to the other species out there, it might be a better option for his standard crew. After all, his ship was going to appear odd to most species once he was done with it, and maybe they¡¯d attribute that to the mysterious halflings if they were seen as the majority of his crew. ¡°I think we should try to research the halflings first. If they don¡¯t turn out like we hope, we can shift gears and look into replacing them with kobolds,¡± Watkins decided. ¡°Sure, and while anything you produce from the fabricator is under your control, just be aware that some of their natural instincts will still be instilled in them. Kobolds are a bit more of a known quantity, but I¡¯m happy with whatever you decide. You should also check into what kind of gear you can create for them,¡± Lani said. Research Module 1 has been tasked with researching Halfling Shipmate, Level 1. Current Progress 0%. While that was underway, Watkins ordered a repair drone scrapped so he could check out the level zero version of the halfling. While it was being built, he checked into the crew gear he had the schematics for. He could build level zero versions of pulse rifles, pistols, melee weapons, and light armor. As soon as the halfling was finished, he¡¯d queue up a full set of gear for it. There were plenty of empty compartments where he could have the halfling test out the weapons. It might also be useful to test out the different MOBS against each other. That way, he could gauge how each version would do in combat. To that end, he queued a second set of crew gear and a level zero kobold as well. It would take another drone out of the workforce, but he was going to have to do that at some point anyway. ¡°Lani, I think we¡¯ll fabricate both a halfling and a kobold. I want to equip them and see how they do in combat against each other. I¡¯ve got a good idea of how the mutated bilge rats and the beetles fight, so we don¡¯t need any of them for the test,¡± Watkins said. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea, and our compartments should be more than durable enough to withstand a few plasma blasts from level zero weapons. What compartment do you want to use for testing?¡¯ Lani asked. ¡°I suppose the larger compartment fore of the reprocessor compartment is the best spot. In fact, I think I¡¯ll have the drones reinforce that room and we¡¯ll use it for testing purposes. We might eventually need to use it for additional storage, but for now, we have a lot of MOBS, weapons, and gear upgrades we¡¯ll need to test,¡± Watkins decided. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°That¡¯s a good plan, though I would wait on any compartment reinforcement until we have a surplus of salvage to work with. For now, it¡¯s more than strong enough for what we need,¡± Lani said. Being a ship core had its advantages, and Watkins made full use of his ability to navigate toward their objective and keep tabs on production of his new MOBS and their gear. First out was the halfling, and it was quite a bit different from the image his human memories had conjured up. What it did get right was the halfling¡¯s overall look. It closely resembled a small human, and it had the oversized hairy feet like he¡¯d remembered. Where the halfling differed was its face. The cherubic shape was there, complete with chubby cheeks that any grandma would want to pinch. What grandma wouldn¡¯t want to get anywhere close to was the halfling¡¯s mouth. The halfling had an oversized mouth and could hinge open wider than it should. Instead of human-like teeth, the halfling¡¯s mouth was a nightmare of several rows of razor sharp, triangular teeth that were closer to what he¡¯d expect from a shark, not a mini human. Its hands were also odd, having only three fingers and a thumb. To top things off, the halfling drooled a bit, though its body seemed to somehow reabsorb the moisture it was losing. For now, he ordered the halfling to wait in the fabricator compartment until its gear was ready. At least it seemed the humanoid MOBS didn¡¯t come out completely naked. The fabricator sent them out with a one-piece garment that covered them up to the neck. When Watkins examined the garment, he was given some additional information. You have unlocked Shipsuit, Level 0. This basic garment is added to all MOBS that would require protections from the elements or in the event of an emergency hull breach. Tough and self-sealing, the shipsuit has a flexible head covering that deploys only when needed. Research additional upgrades to improve the functionality and durability of this equipment. While his MOBS weren¡¯t as susceptible to the environments as a normal person, they would still need the suit¡¯s protection if the atmosphere was somehow sucked out of the ship. His vessel could recycle and create breathable atmosphere given time, but his MOBS would need protection, and the ability to still work, while that was happening. It didn¡¯t take long for the two sets of gear to arrive out of the fabricator. The armor emerged first, and it was a fairly simple design. There were several thin polymer plates that would resist both kinetic damage from projectiles and energy damage from lasers or plasma weapons. The set had a breastplate and guards for the upper thighs. Watkins didn¡¯t think it would be enough protection, but as a level zero item, he couldn¡¯t complain too much. His halfling was ordered to don the armor, which it clumsily did. These level zero MOBS were uncoordinated and fumbled a bit to get things sorted. The halfling picked up the plasma rifle next, slinging it over its shoulder and then attaching the pistol, which came with a holster, to its waist. The pistol holster had a magnetic strip on the side that matched similar mounting points on the shipsuit. Examining the weapons revealed their rather limited usefulness. Plasma Pistol, Level 0. This weapon fires a magnetically accelerated bolt of plasma energy at the target. Range and damage are limited at this level, and the pistol only holds enough energy for a single shot before the internal power core must recharge. The recharge time between shots is 1 minute. Plasma Rifle, Level 0. This weapon fires a magnetically accelerated bolt of plasma energy at the target. Range and damage are limited at this level, and the rifle only holds enough energy for 2 shots before the internal power core must recharge. The recharge time for a single shot is 1 minute. ¡°Not exactly what I was expecting for a high-tech weapon,¡± Watkins complained as he examined the rifle and pistol. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, we lost most of our schematics when the ship was destroyed. We should be glad we had something to start with, otherwise, we¡¯d be limited to clubs and spears. Further research will improve them, though I don¡¯t think we should prioritize personal ranged weapons over other needs for our ship,¡± Lani explained. She was right, Watkins realized, they had to walk before they could run, though this wasn¡¯t quite a walk, more like a crawl. A few minutes later, the kobold emerged. It was about the same height as the halfling, only four feet or so tall, but it was slender and more had a scaly skin that might give it some addition protection at higher levels. It also had sharp teeth in its mouth, but Watkins was willing to bet that the bite of the halfling would be more dangerous than what the small snout of the kobold could dish out. All in all, the two MOBS seemed evenly matched once they geared up. As far as melee weapons, Watkins had a choice of several types but had kept things simple and given both contestants a long dagger that was closer to a shortsword than a knife. ¡°It¡¯s time to test these two out. Want to bet on which one you think will win?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure we have anything to bet, but if I had a choice, I believe the kobold will win a one-on-one combat,¡± Lani said. ¡°I guess that leaves the halfling in my corner, let¡¯s get them into the training compartment and run them through their paces,¡± Watkins said, finding that he was actually looking forward to the action. Chapter 32. Battle Testing. Chapter 32. Battle Testing. Before they began testing the two MOBS, Watkins had several extra body armor panels fabricated. A drone was pulled off salvage duty to erect several armor stands and place the newly manufactured body armor on them. It would give Watkins a chance to test out not only the effectiveness of the armor, but also the plasma weapons that he was able to produce. ¡°We¡¯ll start with the rifles, have each take a shot a center mass on the armor,¡± Lani suggested. There were two armor stands for each of his MOBS, and they both leveled their rifles at the targets. A hissing thump was issued from the plasma rifles as they fired, both shots were wide of the mark, with the halfling missing completely, and the kobold barely clipping the right side of the armor. ¡°Not exactly encouraging, given that they¡¯re using a rifle and the target¡¯s only forty feet away,¡± Watkins said as the two minions lined up their second shots. Both fired again, and did a bit better. Both were still off the mark but had hit the armor. The hits burned completely through the thin polymer armor, which made Watkins want to add another feature to the firepower test. He printed up shipsuits that were mounted underneath the armor. He wanted to see if they mitigated the damage at all. The wait for the shipsuits to be completed gave the rifles time to recharge the two shots they were able to hold with the limited internal storage capacity. The next two rifle shots hit the armor and confirmed that while the shipsuit might have some protective qualities, it wasn¡¯t going to help stop a plasma bolt. Even these relatively weak ranged weapons were able to overcome the only armor that he could currently produce. ¡°I¡¯d have to say their about tied in their accuracy,¡± Lani said as they fired more rounds at the targets. The pair of MOBS then switched to their pistols, which, as they suspected, cut down on both their accuracy, and the damage dealt. Most shots could penetrate the armor with easy, but a glancing blow would be deflected, which gave Watkins some hope that future upgrades to his armor design would be reasonably effective. ¡°I agree, they¡¯re about even on ranged firepower. How about we move to melee,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Sure, do we want them to use knives, or natural weapons?¡± Lani asked. ¡°Let them be armed, that way, we can see if the armor, or the shipsuit helps, and how their natural attack abilities stack up against each other,¡± Watkins decided. At his command, both minions, which were only about six feet apart, launched themselves at each other. The halfling proved a bit quicker than the kobold, driving his knife into the chest armor of the reptilian MOBS before being swept off his feet by the kobold¡¯s tail. Jumping onto his victim, the kobold began stabbing at the halfling, his target was the lower stomach just under the halfling¡¯s chest armor. Blood poured from the wounds, but the halfling wasn¡¯t giving up. Watkins realized that would be one big advantage that his MOBS would have over real opponents, they didn¡¯t quit due to the pain of a wound, and they didn¡¯t get scared. The halfling¡¯s head shot forward at the next stab, his jaws opening wide as the tooth filled maw of the small humanoid latched onto the hand holding the knife. Swinging his head back and forth caused the teeth to cut into the kobold¡¯s arm like a saw. Any protective qualities its scaly skin or shipsuit had were negated by the powerful bite. In seconds, the arm was severed and the kobold responded by biting off the ear of the halfling, who was now stabbing wildly with his knife at the side of the kobold. It was the halfling that died first, followed by the kobold a moment later as blood loss took them both out. Once again, it seemed that the two MOBS were pretty much evenly matched. He didn¡¯t see any reason to delay the research by switching it from halfling to kobold. ¡°I¡¯d call that a draw,¡± Watkins announced. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Well, my kobold survived a bit longer, so I¡¯d say I was the winner,¡± Lani replied. ¡°Maybe, but other than bragging rights, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a prize for you,¡± Watkins said. It was nice to just banter with Lani, the bet, and their MOBS test was a nice break from just monitoring the repairs. ¡°How many halflings are you going to fabricate?¡± Lani asked. It was a good question; he still needed more drones than MOBS for the foreseeable future. Looking at his command limit, Watkins was pleased to see that it had increased. The additional work on the ship, and the corresponding improvement in his Core Processing Power, had boosted his Command Limit to 24. ¡°Let¡¯s go with a total of six halflings for now. That will give us some ranged firepower and we can always supplement them with the drones if there¡¯s an emergency,¡± Watkins decided. That meant pulling in two more drones to be reprocessed. At level zero, the halfling MOBS took up 10 biomass and 2 salvage to create. Their gear for the new MOBS was paid for by reprocessing the burnt and battered armor and the stands that the drones had created for their test. With his testing over, Watkins looked over the salvage and rebuild progress. The bow of his ship was growing longer as the chunk of debris diminished. The main gun upgrade was progressing along, and the indicator showed the drones had completed 68% of the work on the first gun. At this pace, he should have both weapons finished before they reached the original location of jump point 2. Watkins could feel Lani¡¯s attention shift from the MOBS and back toward directing the drones. She was using her server enhanced ability to boost the group working on the main gun, which was perfect. He wanted to be able to defend their ship if something happened to be lurking at the old jump point station. Hours passed and the upgrades and research ticked along. The first main gun was complete, and the second was well under way when more of the stray comm signals were picked up. Lani snapped out of her work on boosting the drones to begin decoding the transmissions. She was getting better at it and a few minutes later, they had what could be recovered. ¡°¡­investigate anomaly at the¡­Rattler can¡¯t investigate, we need to hunt¡­system not safe to linger¡­hungry ones will return¡­¡± ¡°Not much there, and none of it sounds good,¡± Watkins said about the rather ominous partial comms message. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t read too much into it, after all, I only was able to decode about 15% of what was being transmitted. The good news with the message degradation is that it confirms whoever sent it is nowhere close to us now,¡± Lani said. Watkins was fine with nobody finding them just yet. A new prompt appeared as his research into the ship¡¯s sensors finally completed. Information flooded into his mind, and he could see the changes that could be made to the microscopic devices embedded in his hull that made up the sensors of his ship. Unlike most of his subsystems, the sensors could be upgraded passively, as they didn¡¯t require any additional salvage, just updating and reconfiguring of what already existed. Watkins willed the sensors to start upgrading, starting with small patches of his hull at a time. They wouldn¡¯t be functional while undergoing upgrades, so he¡¯d have to take it slow to not leave himself blind while waiting for the upgrades to be completed. This upgrade wasn¡¯t as quick as having a drone do the work, but at their current level, his drones were probably even slower with such delicate work. That left Watkins with a free research module. He thought about what to start with next and realized that he had been neglecting two of the more important features of his ship, the fabricator and reprocessor. First off, he wanted to get the reprocessor upgraded. That should improve efficiency and limit the waste inherent in reprocessing salvage and biomass. It meant he had to postpone other upgrade research that he wanted to complete, like getting his shields back online, but he couldn¡¯t do everything at once with only two research modules to work with. His sensor range was slowly increasing, giving Watkins the confidence to bump up his thrust a bit. As they traveled, the main gun upgrades for both weapons were completed. Looking over his offensive options, Watkins considered what he¡¯d want to delve into once a research module was freed up and there wasn¡¯t something else that needed urgent attention. Ship¡¯s Weapons Research Status:
  1. Point defense laser, Level 0.
  2. Torpedo Launcher, pending initial research.
  3. Main Guns, Level 1.
He had three weapons to work with. His point defenses were less than stellar at level zero, but he was feeling better about his main guns. To really reach out and put the hurt on a ship from a longer range, he needed the torpedo launcher. ¡°Lani, I have developmental research listed on the torpedo launchers. Why can I begin to develop those, but not some of the other weapon systems that might be out there?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I believe it may be due to the fragmented nature of your core knowledge. The basic information on other possible weapon systems didn¡¯t survive the initial damage to our ship and the time spent drifting in space while you acclimated to your core. When we arrive at the main research station, there should be additional data we can recover regarding not just weapons, but other possible upgrade paths,¡± Lani explained. Chapter 33. Vampires. Chapter 33. Vampires. The hours passed into days as they approached their destination. Research on the Halfling Shipmate MOBS units completed, and Watkins began to upgrade the existing level zero MOBS. It turned out that he didn¡¯t need to completely scrap and rebuild new units, instead, he could assign a drone to upgrade them. It wasn¡¯t a pretty sight, and he was glad that the MOBS could shut off any pain signals to their brains as the drones cut, drilled, and installed various parts both biological and mechanical. When they were done with the first halfling, Lani and Watkins ran it through their new testing compartment as he started to call it. The differences between it and the level zero version were modest but noticeable. His level one halflings were 22% more accurate with ranged weapons and performed 15% better in melee. In addition, their bodies were 9% more durable than the earlier version. ¡°How high of a level do you think we can eventually make our MOBS?¡± Watkins asked when he noticed there was no information on maximum level for research projects in his core. ¡°Odd, I have no access to that data either. Chalk it up to yet another thing we¡¯ll have to look for when we eventually make it to the research station. At least we¡¯re getting closer to the remains of the jump point station,¡± Lani said. ¡°I¡¯m going to start shields research on the freed-up research module,¡± Watkins decided. ¡°A good choice, that will give us better protection. Combined with a hull that is significantly stronger than a normal vessel, we¡¯ll be a force to be reckoned with against anything other than a dedicated warship,¡± Lani said. ¡°I take it that the vessels we¡¯ve seen in action so far weren¡¯t warships,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Correct, they were all likely cobbled together from merchant, exploration, or other vessels. That¡¯s not to say they aren¡¯t dangerous, it¡¯s just that their hulls, targeting arrays, sensors, drives, and other subsystems weren¡¯t designed for the rigors of combat,¡± Lani explained. ¡°Thanks, Lani. Something tells me those ships probably aren¡¯t getting regular maintenance as well,¡± Watkins said before turning his attention to other tasks. A quick check showed that the other research project, the Reprocessor, was only at 4% and chugging along slowly. Other than the experimental fabricator, it was possibly the most complex item on his ship, which would obviously make its research take longer. Still, the progress seemed slower than it should have compared to the other projects he¡¯d already finished. Lani offered to help him with research, but Watkins would rather her keep assisting the drones for him. Getting more of the hull built out was improving just about everything on his vessel as the devices built into the hull were added to his control. He checked on his core processing power, and was happy to see that it, and his corresponding command limit, had improved. Vessel: Pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: 79%. Core Processing Power: 91%. Core Durability: 100%. Command Limit: 24/25.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 1 (18).
  2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (0).
  3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (0).
  4. Halfling Shipmate, Level 1 (6).
  5. Kobold crewman, Level 0 (0).
With the extra command limit point, Watkins ordered a seventh halfling to be produced. When it came time to board something, or repel boarders, he wanted a bit more protection for his core. That also meant he needed to look over the layout of his ship. Some knowledge of ship boarding on starships was downloaded into his mind. Watkins knew that most of the time, boarders used an existing hatch to make their attack. To board anywhere else on the hull was possible, but much more time consuming as an existing hatchway or shuttle bay opening was a natural weak point compared to a heavily armored deck. The time wasted by the boarders would be used by the defenders to prepare their defense. There was also the complication of setting up a makeshift airlock if they didn¡¯t want to fight in vacuum and face a horrible death if their shipsuit and armor were penetrated. By taking and holding an existing entry hatch or shuttle bay, they did less damage to the ship, which made the prize more attractive. Watkins¡¯ armor would make cutting through the hull an even more laborious process for any enemy that wanted to take his ship. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. With that in mind, Wakins began to plan for some changes to improve the defensibility of his vessel. A warning flashed in his vision, drawing all his current attention away from potential future boarding actions and toward a more immediate threat. ¡°Vampire, Vampire, we have inbound missiles,¡± Watkins called out, using the Navy term he remembered for incoming missiles. The two weapons had been fired from somewhere near their jump point station target and he could actually feel them when they locked onto his vessel. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, like a horrible itchiness that he couldn¡¯t quite scratch. All his point defense weapons were primed and ready to engage once the missiles entered range. The point defense wasn¡¯t the only thing he could do, and Watkins tried to engage them with his main guns as well. Their slow rate of fire made for a poor point defense weapon, but their greater range and his precise targeting system allowed Watkins to fire from a longer distance. Even if the main guns only gave him a small chance at interception, it was better than waiting and doing nothing. It also gave him a chance to test drive the weapons and get a feel for operating them. ¡°I¡¯ll shift my processing power to the point defense weapons. I can¡¯t do a whole lot, but I can give them an additional 3.6% chance of hitting the target,¡± Lani said. ¡°Thanks, Lani, I¡¯m going to focus on the same thing, as well as some evasive maneuvers if they get close,¡± Watkins said. He lined up his main guns, happy that the missiles didn¡¯t seem to be doing much to evade any defensive fire. There was only an occasional course adjustment, and Watkins had to figure these weren¡¯t exactly top of the line weapons if they were left lurking inside a debris field at an out of the way jump point. What was more disturbing was the fact that he hadn¡¯t detected any targeting scans before the missiles were launched. Granted, his sensors weren¡¯t fully upgraded yet, but he should have sensed something. Placing that worry on the back burner, Watkins watched as the missiles closed in. When they were within range, he began to fire the main guns. A pair of bright orange beams reached out into the dark of space. In reality, there was nothing visible to the human eye, but Watkins¡¯ sensors represented the weapons fire in the way he preferred. Both shots were a miss, but the data he received enabled Watkins to fine-tune his targeting calculations. After the main gun cooldown cycle completed, another pair of shots lanced out. This time, the leftmost missile was hit, the upgraded main gun laser was powerful enough to completely obliterate the missile. They now entered into range of his point defense weapons, which began to pulse out smaller laser blasts. It was now that the surviving missile began to evade in earnest, leading Watkins to believe it was only programmed to do so when it was likely in range of a normal point defense weapon. Hitting one with his main guns had been easier than it would have been if the missiles were evading this hard from the get-go. He didn¡¯t give up on using the main guns to supplement the point defense, but their probability of scoring a hit was almost nil at this point. One of the point defense beams clipped the missile, melting though some of its outer housing and throwing it into a corkscrew motion as it lost its targeting lock. Maneuvering his ship, Watkins kept well clear of the damaged missile as it passed harmlessly by. Lani gunned it down with another blast of point defense fire, detonating the weapon. A wave of relief washed over him as the itchy feeling subsided; they¡¯d survived the attack. ¡°Must have been a very simple guidance and evasion package on that missile. Whoever placed it there either was trying to go cheap, or this really was the best they could do. I suspect there¡¯s a disposable launch platform out there in the debris, not another ship,¡± Lani surmised. ¡°I agree, and if there¡¯s a launch platform, I want it. We need it not only for the salvage, but also to jump start our own torpedo launcher research,¡± Watkins said. More information on the difference between torpedoes and missiles was scrounged up by his core and supplemented by some data that Lani shared. At least initially, Watkins¡¯ torpedo launcher would be used to fire simple missiles. Actual ship¡¯s torpedoes were huge weapons and used to deliver devastating blows to larger ships or structures with weakened point defenses. Thankfully, the launcher used for a torpedo could be adjusted to fire missiles with little effort, though the reverse was not possible. That did bring up a bit of confusion regarding his original ship design. Why did a smaller vessel like his have space dedicated to torpedo launchers when simpler missile launchers would save space and make more sense on a ship that lacked jump drives? ¡°I can sense what you¡¯re about to ask,¡± Lani said, interrupting him before he could even begin to ask the question. ¡°The original design was for your ship to be more powerful than any comparable sized military vessel. You¡¯d pack enough firepower to protect our station, and the system from the likes of the raiders that originally destroyed the research station, not to mention any of the void creatures that wanted to make an appearance.¡± ¡°Then why no jump drive? You¡¯d think that the original builders would want to be able to chase down any enemy that tried to flee the system,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s because the council wanted to make sure it could contain you if it couldn¡¯t control or destroy you,¡± Lani admitted. She was no longer controlled by the council either, but that did not prevent anger from flaring up in Watkins. Nobody was going to keep him imprisoned in this system. He¡¯d find a way to install a jump drive eventually, and the council, kobolds, halflings, void creatures, and anyone else that wanted to stop him would find out just how powerful he intended to make his vessel. Chapter 34. Whats in a Name? Chapter 34. What¡¯s in a Name. ¡°We¡¯re nearing the jump point. It looks like there¡¯s quite a bit of debris for us to work with, and I¡¯ve pinpointed the spot where the missile launcher was located,¡± Watkins said as they finally reached their destination. The gravitational forces exerted by the jump point had kept much of the debris from over a century ago in the same area. Combined with the chunk his drones were still stripping down for salvage, there was more than enough material to rebuild the ship, and sock away enough reserves for an emergency. For once, a lack of salvage wouldn¡¯t hold him back. ¡°Hm, looks like a disposable launcher platform was used. There¡¯s not a lot of tech there to examine, but it¡¯s better than nothing,¡± Lani said. They maneuvered toward the launch platform which was a basic framework with a small control module bolted on. The racks designed to hold the two missiles were charred, but intact for his drones to strip down and examine. ¡°How did they spot us? There¡¯s just a control module on the launcher, not any kind of scanner that I can see,¡± Watkins said. ¡°You¡¯re right, their targeting scanner must be hidden in the debris somewhere. We¡¯ll track it down when we start harvesting everything,¡± Lani said. ¡°This isn¡¯t very good equipment, and I wonder who placed it here?¡± Watkins asked as they looked over the launcher system. ¡°Probably the kobolds since we saw them firing missiles from the smaller ships we watched fight earlier. They might have dropped this off in case another halfling vessel entered the system. Why there are a bunch of kobolds in this system is a mystery. We destroyed the ship that attacked the station over a century ago, and there were no survivors,¡± Lani said. ¡°Whatever the reason, we have enough resources here to make our ship into something that can deal with one of those smaller kobold ships,¡± Watkins said with confidence. Slowing to a stop near the launcher, they used the now tried and true method of having a drone leap across the small gap between it and their ship. Mostly consisting of exposed framework, it was only a few minutes before the lone drone confirmed there were no threats aboard the launcher. They hauled it in, tying it off near the shuttle bay where the earlier chunk of salvage was still being worked on. The oversized hatches covering the shuttle bay were open, and Watkins was able to project an energy field over it, keeping the atmosphere in as the drones moved in and out with their salvage. A bit of atmosphere leaked out with each breach of the energy field, and it was something he¡¯d have to research an upgrade for in the future. For now, his core had more than enough power to keep generating new atmosphere to replace the limited amount that leaked out. He watched as two of the drones scampered over the dwindling chunk of wreckage. They were looking over the strange rectangular device he had noticed earlier on the other ship. The pair of drones carefully removed the device as intact as possible and placed it into the reprocessor. As the data from the drones and the reprocessor arrived at his core, Watkins unlocked a new research option. You have discovered a non-functioning defensive weapon system. Begin research into this defensive system to discern its use and possibly unlock the ability to reproduce it if you wish. ¡°Well, that¡¯s new,¡± Watkins said, making sure he shared the data on the new research option with Lani. ¡°Interesting, it¡¯s listed as a defensive weapon system, but neither your core, nor my server has anything in the database matching it,¡± Lani said. ¡°I may not know much about myself, but I do know that I need to research this sooner rather than later or it¡¯ll bug me to no end,¡± Watkins admitted. Memories at the back of his mind began to tingle, but they disappeared before he could latch onto them. With a sigh of disappointment, he continued to monitor the work on his ship. Unlike the strange rectangular defensive system, the drones didn¡¯t seem to glean any new insight into missile technology from tearing apart the launcher. It was just a nice bit of salvage that was added to his stores. Progress on the bow section was going strong, and they almost had enough salvage on hand to complete it. To make sure they had all they needed, Watkins began to maneuver around the area, seeking out and gathering the larger chunks of debris for his drones to add to their haul. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! There was nothing as large as the missile platform, but the quantity of smaller bits and pieces in relatively close proximity was enough to make the effort worthwhile. He felt better as the bow of the ship came together. Instead of the flowing angles of an oceangoing ship, his was a hefty, blunt design, with two large hatches that covered where the torpedo launchers would go. He allowed the autonomous systems to take over as they approached another small bit of debris, Watkins wanted his whole attention on his ship as the last bit of it was finally rebuilt. When the final bit of hull was completed, it felt like something had slipped into place for Watkins. He briefly remembered his physical body stretching and his back giving a satisfying crack that sent relief flooding through him. The experience he was having with his vessel felt oddly similar. His core seemed to agree with his assessment and some new information appeared. You have successfully completed external repairs of your vessel. Your core processing power has reached 100%. You have unlocked the ability to track your core progress as it evolves and improves. This progress will be defined with Levels, similar to those used in your research. You will acquire Core Points (CPs) which reflect the progress of your core to the next level. Core Points are earned as you test and challenge yourself. Various activities, such as combat, research, and new discoveries, will likely result in you earning more Core Points. Your current status is as follows: Vessel: Name pending. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Core Level: 0. Core Points 0/100. Hull Durability: 100%. Core Processing Power: 100%. Command Limit: 25/30. New research options have been discovered:
  1. Torpedo Launchers, Level 0.
  2. Electronic Warfare Suite, Level 0.
  3. Shuttlecraft, Level 0.
¡°Lani, are you seeing all this?¡± Watkins asked as he read the last of the messages. ¡°Yes, it seems your core has even created a way to track its progress as you grow in power. How are you feeling?¡± Lani asked. ¡°Great, better than I have since being forced into this core,¡± Watkins replied. It was true, he did feel almost like a new man, or ship, in this case. With his ship complete, it was time to take a step he¡¯d been putting off for a while. ¡°Lani, I think it¡¯s time we named our vessel,¡± Watkins said. ¡°What were you thinking?¡± Lani asked. ¡°Give me a minute, I want to make sure we pick something appropriate, though I¡¯m open to suggestions,¡± Watkins said. ¡°So, how about The Happy Unicorn?¡± Lani said. ¡°Wait, are you trying to make a joke?¡± Watkins said, trying hard not to laugh at Lani¡¯s suggestion. ¡°No, unicorns are majestic creatures, and any ship would be proud to be named after one. On top of that, if you¡¯re going to be a unicorn, why not be a happy one?¡± Lani asked¡­pausing while Watkins tried to determine if there was something wrong with her programming. ¡°Nope, I¡¯m just messing with you,¡± Lani said, laughing at Watkins shock. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see your server has somehow discovered a sense of humor, now, unless you have a real suggestion, I want to think about this,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Sorry to interrupt again, but I think you¡¯re right. My server received a boost of processing power from the ship when you were completed, and it seems to have unlocked a bit more of who I was back when I was alive. I¡¯ll have to run a diagnostic and see what I can find. Thank you, Captain Watkins, I¡¯m not sure what you did, but to have even this small bit of me back again, it¡¯s amazing,¡± Lani said with excitement in her voice. ¡°Let me know what you find, Lani, we¡¯ll have to think of a way to celebrate you discovering part of your past personality,¡± Watkins said. He meant it, they had both been living people, though he wasn¡¯t quite sure what species Lani had been. Maybe she was the elf portrayed in his simulation, or she could just as easily be something else entirely. They had to celebrate the small victories they achieved in remembering who they were. Pushing those thoughts aside, Watkins delved through his available data to try and come up with a name for his vessel. Surprisingly, old military history from Earth was still quite plentiful in his core, though he did remember during his creation that the system seemed to take an interest in his past studies on the subject. Watkins thought about what type of vessel he was. They would pack a punch when everything was fixed up the way he wanted, which, of course, meant that he was a warship first and foremost. As much as he¡¯d like to, he couldn¡¯t compare himself to a battleship, cruiser, or even a frigate. Not having a jump drive, he was locked into this system, it wasn¡¯t too unlike the gunboats of old. They were warships that stayed close to shore and plyed the larger rivers. Yes, if his current state as a warship was anything, it was a gunboat. Which gunboat would he name himself after? Chapter 35. Canon. Chapter 35. Canon. There was one ship that popped up in his memory. It wasn¡¯t necessarily because of the ship itself, more of how the crew had fought their vessel. It was an Asheville class gunboat named Canon that had served in the Vietnam War. The ship had found itself on a mission up a river when they began to receive fire from both banks. Hundreds of rounds of small arms fire and eight rockets slammed into the ship, which returned fire with all its weapons. The commanding officer of the gunboat, Lieutenant Commander David Brooks, was wounded several times in the fight, including a broken leg. Unable to stand, Brooks ordered the crew to strap him into a stretcher and prop him up so he could continue to direct the guns. Half the crew were wounded, but they fought their way out of the ambush and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. That was the kind of captain that Watkins admired, a man who fought through the pain of his wounds to make sure his ship and crew won the fight. Yes, that was going to be a proper name for his new vessel. He would name himself after the ship that Brooks had commanded that day. They would be the USS Canon. He pushed the data on the old ship and its history to Lani, so she could review it as well. Your Vessel has been designated the USS Canon. ¡°Captain Watkins, thank you for the information on the vessel you¡¯re taking our name from. I think we¡¯ll do our namesake proud,¡± Lani said after perusing the information on the original Canon. ¡°I don¡¯t know about you, Lani, but it feels better to have a name for our ship. Now that we¡¯ve taken care of naming, we should see about getting these repairs completed,¡± Watkins said. While the drones had completed the bow section of his ship, there were still more repairs and fine-tuning to be done. The area of his hull where the void creature had hit him with the acidic slime also needed more attention, as did building up a reserve of salvage material. Things were piling up on his agenda. ¡°Captain Watkins, I think we may have found the device that allowed the missile launcher to target our ship,¡± Lani said, drawing his attention to an intact chunk of debris. It was a sensor buoy and a quick scan of it showed the device still maintained at least some functionality. The buoy looked like a satellite from Earth to Watkins, a long, cylindrical main body, with two panels extending out from it. The odd panels seemed to perform two functions, they would gather solar energy, and function as passive scan receivers. ¡°I want that, let¡¯s haul it aboard and see if we can get the schematic,¡± Watkins said. He could already imagine creating a network of these across the system. ¡°This is old, probably one of the ones that the council had placed here. It looks like someone has been tampering with it,¡± Lani said as they pulled alongside the buoy and Watkins sent a drone over to snag it. A quick inspection revealed that there were no hidden dangers in the device before they hauled it aboard. ¡°Well, look at that, my old codes still work on this. Whoever added it to their sensor network didn¡¯t bother to wipe the command codes, they just did a sloppy job of adding their own operating system over the top of the existing one. Just give me a minute or two and I¡¯ll see what this little buoy has been up to,¡± Lani said. Data began to flow into Lani¡¯s server from the buoy, and she shared the information with Watkins. The buoy¡¯s memory module was damaged, but it still was able to store recent history. He could see that the device had slowly gathered data on his ship as they approached and fed that data into the disposable launcher that they had left behind to defend the jump point. Further back in its memory, Watkins could see when the buoy had been discovered by the kobolds, who conducted minor repairs and re-tasked the device for their use. He now had confirmation it was the kobolds who had left behind the missile launcher and had established some connection to the buoy. ¡°Lani, is this thing still transmitting data to the kobolds? We know they have at least one other ship out there,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s set for occasional burst transmissions, and the next data packet isn¡¯t scheduled to be sent for over an hour from now,¡± Lani advised. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Can we alter the data; make it forget it saw us?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°No, I can alter future transmissions, but they¡¯ll have everything up until about ten minutes ago when the last transmission was sent. From now on, I¡¯ll mask our presence, and they¡¯ll have no idea we¡¯ve taken back their toy,¡± Lani said. ¡°Make it happen. I think we can handle a single kobold ship given its performance against the halfling vessel, but the more time we can remain undetected, the better off we¡¯ll be,¡± Watkins said. For now, he was content to slowly drift around the debris field, snagging all the juicy bits for his ship to turn into raw material. The research on Shields was finally completed, and he now had them at Level 0. It wasn¡¯t an impressive system, but it was better than no protection other than his hull. He would need further research to rebuild the missing second wing of the shield projector, but the one he had could now be made functional. You have completed research on Shield Projector, Level 0. As the majority of this research occurred before unlocking your Core Points (CP) system, no CP will be awarded for this research project. Continue to research new technologies to generate CP. That wasn¡¯t what he wanted to hear, but at least he knew the system his core had designed was still working in the background. Boosting his core level was going to be crucial if he wanted to expand his abilities and eventually have greater command points to allocate. With the shield research finished, he had more work to do. A pair of drones were tasked with rebuilding the shield generator. As far as his next project, Watkins now had two torpedo tubes that were sitting there useless, so he had the research module start on those. Progress on his other research, the Reprocessor, was at 67.23% and was slowly plodding along. When it was done, he¡¯d have to see about making the research modules themselves his next upgrade project. They seemed to be struggling with the reprocessor, and the fabricator would probably be even worse. ¡°Watkins,¡± Lani said drawing his attention. "I¡¯ve been able to tap into the network the kobolds are using. It seems they have found two other partially functional sensor buoys linked into their system, and we are now using them as well. One is located near the remains of the research station. Get this, the kobolds are using the ruins of the station as a makeshift dock for their vessels. ¡°It¡¯ll take me time to sort through everything in their database, but from what I can initially gather, the kobolds had three ships like the ones we saw in action. They were using this system as an out of the way pirate base to recover and repair after missions deeper into known space,¡± Lani explained. ¡°Does that mean we have access to their star charts?¡± Watkins asked, excited about the possibility of new data to chart his course back home. ¡°It¡¯s limited, and so far, I¡¯ve only found data on the system on the other side of jump point two. That one is another abandoned system, but it has a jump point link not only back toward the more inhabited systems, but also deeper into the unknown areas of space. The unknown areas are where the halfling raiders emerged from. It seems one of the kobold ships ran afoul of the halflings when returning from a pirate raid, and that fight we saw earlier was with the halfling ship that chased them into this system,¡± Lani added. ¡°We¡¯ll take whatever system data we can get, and at least we know part of the research station survived the attack,¡± Watkins said. ¡°True, and it seems the kobold base is a relatively new thing. I can only hope they haven¡¯t explored all the station¡¯s remains yet. If they haven¡¯t, there¡¯s a good chance that what we¡¯re looking for is still waiting for us,¡± Lani said. If she was right, his crew, and their memories might be waiting for them, but they were also just waiting for the kobolds to stumble across them. Watkins didn¡¯t have a good feeling about what the kobold pirates would do with any data servers or stasis pods they found still aboard the station. He was going to have to step things up. They needed to reach the station as soon as he was combat capable. It was almost guaranteed that they were going to have a fight on their hands once the kobolds spotted them. ¡°Lani, just to confirm, the kobolds did get sent the information about the missile launch,¡± Watkins asked, worried that there might be more ships out looking for them. ¡°Yes, sadly, they would have received the data on the launch by now. Anything after that would have waiting for the next regular update, or for when a specific request was made for the data,¡± Lani said. ¡°So, the kobolds knew their missile platform had fired, but they didn¡¯t bother to ask what they had shot at, or if the threat was still out there?¡± Watkins asked. He had no doubt that the kobold pirates were probably as sloppy and lazy as some of the pirates he knew about back on Earth, but he couldn¡¯t fathom them not requesting more information on a potential attacker. ¡°That¡¯s correct. There was no response or request for additional information from the kobolds at the station. I¡¯m as confused as you are. For them to go through the trouble of setting up the missile ambush, and then ignoring when it triggers doesn¡¯t make sense. I¡¯ve placed false data showing that the missiles destroyed the target, but we still should have seen more of a response from them,¡± Lani said. ¡°Maybe the kobolds are facing something more urgent than a report on missiles fired back at the jump point?¡± Watkins considered that there may be something going on back at the station, something that had captured the complete attention of the kobolds. ¡°I think we need to head to the station right away,¡± Lani said. Watkins agreed, they had a decent amount of salvage aboard, and taking more time for research and upgrades were going to have to wait until they secured what they needed from the station. Chapter 36. Beehive. Chapter 36. Beehive. ¡°Setting a course for the last known location of the station,¡± Watkins said as he perused the system information in both his and Lani¡¯s database. It would take them a few days to reach their destination, and while they sailed, Watkins would have time to review any data the other two sensor buoys gave them. The buoy near the station had only an intermittent connection, but Watkins figured that connection would improve as the distance closed. Their final buoy was near the outermost planet, a barren place that held no life or from what Lani¡¯s data indicated, any desirable resources. It would have been nice to have resource rich world in the system, but for now, Watkins was just happy to finally receive more data about the area. With reduced thrust to help hide their approach, they had a three-day journey ahead of them. Before they set out, Watkins gathered a few more of the larger bits of debris, filling up half of the shuttle bay with random salvage while the last part of the kobold missile launcher was still attached to the hull and being processed. It took a full day for his drones to process all the salvage. While that was being accomplished, his hull had completed repairs, along with the sensor bank that was mounted on the keel of his ship. With everything integrated and working, his vision expanded greatly. Based on the knowledge already in his core, and in Lani¡¯s database, he estimated that his sensor ranges were at least 10% longer than the range of the sensors on the kobold ships. The kobold ships were just civilian transports renovated for pirate duty. Those renovations mostly included bolting on a point defense gun and mounting disposable missile launchers onto the hull. They had less information on the halfling ships, and they would have to be wary when approaching one. Watkins felt that if he could do some additional research on his hull, he might find a way to not only make it stronger but also incorporate some additional stealth features. He did manage to complete the torpedo launcher research after the second day of travel. A system prompt explained what he could now build. You have completed researching, Torpedo Launcher, Level 0. You may now build out the internal components of a torpedo launcher for your vessel. This launcher can accommodate most of the common missile and torpedo variants. For researching Torpedo Launcher, Level 0, you have gained 10 Core Points (CP). Missile, Level 0, has been researched in conjunction with the Torpedo Launcher. While you do not possess the knowledge of how to create a torpedo, a basic anti-ship missile may now be produced. Research further missile upgrades to eventually unlock the more powerful variants. For researching Missile, Level 0, you have gained 10 CP. ¡°It looks like we finally have some long-range firepower. The missiles aren¡¯t that great, but they can extend our reach a lot further than the main guns are able to,¡± Watkins said as he looked over the details of the missile. ¡°Excellent, it looks like a standard pattern missile is all we can produce now, but it¡¯s not that far off from what the kobolds launched at us. Even better, we aren¡¯t limited to a couple of shots from a disposable launcher bolted onto our hull,¡± Lani said. She was right, the missiles would perform a bit more poorly than the kobold weapons had done. His payload was also about 40% less, which would greatly reduce the damage compared to his potential foes. His torpedo room had already been constructed, but now his drones could build out and fine tune the final bits and pieces that it needed to function, as well as create a magazine to hold additional weapons. The missiles took a sizeable amount of salvage to create, 20 units each, and that was salvage he¡¯d never recover. Still, it gave him more firepower and he had more than enough spare salvage to build multiple missiles. A quick examination of the available space showed that his magazine could comfortably hold six weapons. That number would jump to eight if he wanted to keep two missiles loaded into the tubes. His magazine was designed to protect his ship in the event of a mishap, blowing out an armored panel at the bottom of the hull to direct the blast of an exploding magazine outward. There was a danger in carrying weapons in the tubes, as the blowout panels were only for the magazine itself. For now, he would fill the magazine and get a feel for how long it took to build the missiles. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it To his surprise, the missiles were built in sections that were hauled to the torpedo launchers by his drones. It was rather inefficient, and he¡¯d have to wait for more research to figure out a better way to handle this. Thinking about his research, Watkins had to figure out what to start on next. With his drones taking an active physical role in building his missiles, it was probably time to bump them up a level. As soon as Watkins tried to start the drone research, he received a new system prompt. You may not progress any research past Level 1 at this point. Boost your core level to unlock new research options. Please note that your core is limited to research that is only 1 level above your current core and research module level. That narrowed down Watkins¡¯ next upgrade options. He was possibly going into combat soon, so adding another defensive upgrade might be worth it. Watkins pulled up his current defensive research options. Ship¡¯s Defenses:
  1. Shields, Level 0.
  2. Hull armor, Level 0.
  3. Internal weapon hardpoint: Initial.
  4. Unknown defensive weapon system: Initial.
The internal weapon hardpoint was intriguing, and his limited data suggested that it would allow him to build simple automated weapon turrets and the like as he followed that research chain. It would help supplement his defensive MOBS, and make boarding the Canon a costly proposition. He was also curious about the unknown defensive weapon system. His shields and hull armor were both at level 0 and he didn¡¯t know if he would finish up level 1 research, and have time to install upgrades, before they reached the station. That left either the internal weapons or the mystery defensive weapon. Of the two, he was more concerned about a space battle at this time, so he went with the unknown. Unknown defensive weapon system research has initiated. Due to prior examination of a sample of this system, partial knowledge has been retained. Research is currently at 23%. ¡°Well, that¡¯s nice, we got a bump in research. I thought we¡¯d be starting at zero considering what happens if I halt research using the modules,¡± Watkins said. From his understanding, the research percentage would slowly deteriorate if he halted one project to shift to another. ¡°It seems that the research bump is due to your core directly examining the details when you took the weapon apart in the reprocessor. Since research wasn¡¯t being done in the discrete research modules, you were able to retain the information. This research boost is probably something that will only happen when you actively take something apart to figure out how to build it instead of just conducting theoretical research using the module,¡± Lani explained. ¡°I¡¯ll take any advantage I can get if it saves time. Having actual parts of a device isn¡¯t going to happen all that often. We may find some things aboard the station or the kobold ships if we take them intact,¡± Watkins said. With the head start, his research on the defensive weapon system progressed quickly, though his reprocessor research was chugging along slowly and sitting at 83%. Barring any emergencies, boosting his research modules to level one was going to have to be his next task. As Watkins suspected, the sensor data on the station area began to fill in as they got closer to the sensor buoy. Lani helped him sort through the data, using her prior knowledge of the station. He could sense a reactor aboard the station was running, though it wasn¡¯t doing so very cleanly, and leaks from the reactor core lit up his sensor banks. There was also a single ship stationed nearby the station or perhaps docked to it, but the distance was too great to know for sure just yet. He suspected the ship was the kobold vessel that had run away from the halflings earlier, but he could confirm it later. Watkins was tempted to order the sensor buoy to go active and paint every nearby target, but that would probably destroy the device, and signal that he was coming. So far, the station and the nearby ship hadn¡¯t reacted to his presence. How long that would last, was anyone¡¯s guess. At least when they did finally spot him, his foe would be coming up against a fully functional vessel with shields, repaired armor, and a full complement of weapon systems. They were six hours from the station when his research on the new weapon system completed. Watkins immediately ordered the research module to work on figuring out its own level one upgrade. The new defensive system he¡¯d unlocked proved to be an interesting supplement to his point defense lasers. Beehive missile defense. This defense system fires a swarm of small, unguided projectiles at the target. Not individually powerful, the smaller projectiles are perfect for destroying incoming missiles or small craft. Simple to use and difficult to avoid, this system is intended to supplement, not replace any other point defense weapons your ship might possess. The grid pattern of the weapon and the residual propellant had given him clues as to the weapon¡¯s use. It was essentially a claymore mine on the hull of his ship, a very close-range weapon to defeat incoming missiles. It could only fire once, so he would have to build several across his hull for them to be effective in a longer fight. His drones could reload the beehive system, but that would likely be impossible to manage during a fight. Everything he wanted for the coming fight would have to be built out and loaded before he got into action. He had the salvage available, so a team of drones left the shuttle bay to begin construction on four of the beehive systems. Hopefully they would be completed soon, as they were getting closer to the station, and it was only a matter of time before the kobolds spotted him. Chapter 37. Stand Down or be Boarded. Chapter 37. Stand Down or be Boarded. It took Watkins only a few moments to calculate the optimal position for mounting the beehive weapons. No matter which way he maneuvered, at least one should be facing a possible threat. There was also going to be little trouble in rolling the ship to present an unfired beehive if more than one shot proved necessary. Hours passed as they closed in, and still, the kobolds gave no reaction to their presence. Even with substandard commercial grade sensors, they should have noticed the Canon by now. He now had three missiles completed and loaded in the magazine, and his drones were well on their way to completing a fourth. A quick systems check gave Watkins a rundown of his ship¡¯s readiness. His two main gun turrets were ready to fire, and the four point defense weapons were also functioning perfectly. The torpedo tubes were operational, and he had something to shoot. Loading the two tubes from the magazine would take him a few seconds, but he¡¯d rather not keep anything in the tubes and ready to fire until they were closer. His hull armor was green across the board, and any imperfections in the section weakened by the void creature¡¯s acid were fixed. The shields were rather weak, and something he¡¯d have to upgrade when there was more time. For now, they¡¯d at least give him an additional layer of protection over just the armor. His sensors were working great, and the picture of what they were heading into was getting clearer by the minute. Watkins could feel Lani¡¯s attention shifting between helping the drones building the beehive systems and watching the ruins of the station they were rapidly approaching. ¡°Looks bad, but at least part of the station seems to have had makeshift repairs completed on it. I wonder how long the kobolds have been here,¡± Watkins said as the examined at the orbital station. A large chunk of the station was just gone, blasted away by the missile attack over a century ago. Any debris had long since drifted off into space or crashed to the planet below. ¡°I estimate a third of the station remains, though it looks like only half of that has been made habitable. At least they rebuilt a docking collar,¡± Lani said, drawing Watkins¡¯ attention to the small ship still docked there. The kobold ship wasn¡¯t all that impressive to Watkins. It was slightly smaller that the Canon, and it looked like a long cylinder with a larger, oddly shaped fore and aft sections The bow featured a wedge shape, and the hull appeared pitted from contact with debris over the long years of its use. Mounted aft of the main cylinder that made up most of the ship was the boxy main drive housing. Sporting only a single main thruster, about the size of one of Watkins¡¯, the ship must have been sluggish off the line. He was too far out to get an idea of how many maneuver thrusters the kobold ship had, but he was willing to bet it wasn¡¯t anywhere near as maneuverable as Canon. As far as weaponry, there was a single point defense weapon mounted in a small turret at the bow, and nothing aft that he could see. On the long cylindrical hull, three rectangular modules that reminded Watkins of shipping containers were mounted. On top of each module was a makeshift missile launcher. All the launchers except for one were empty, and the one that had ordinance only had a single missile loaded. The lack of missiles seemed to confirm that this was the ship that had fled the battle earlier. It had fired off several missiles at the halfling raider, and either had saved its last shot, or the missile was non-functional for some reason. ¡°It¡¯s about what I expected, an older cargo vessel that¡¯s been converted into a pirate raider. I don¡¯t have data on the exact specifications on that type of vessel, but it¡¯s similar to other short haul vessels I remember. Normally the whole cylindrical main hull of the vessel would be covered in layers of those cargo containers, but now, it seems they have lost or sold all but the three remaining ones,¡± Lani said. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°I agree, it doesn¡¯t seem all that impressive, but the station could be armed as well,¡± Watkins said, shifting his attention over to the station. The ship was docked via a flexible boarding collar and connected to the station¡¯s largest surviving section. It was a rectangular module that was more than double the size of the ship. Made of an unknown alloy, Watkins didn¡¯t believe the station¡¯s hull was armored to stand up to any kind of real battle. Four more sections of the station survived with varying degrees of damage. A solar array was attached to the second brick-like module of the station and must have provided at least some of the station¡¯s power, though he did detect a poorly shielded reactor onboard the same section as the solar array. The station sections were all connected by a pair of short metal tubes that must have been only wide enough for two people walking side by side. Oddly enough, one of the tubes on each section of the station had been intentionally cut away, leaving only a small, jagged end sticking out. Maybe that was for the kobolds to block access from potential enemies. Having two entrances open was a lot more dangerous than a single choke point if the station were boarded. The third module of the station had several lights that were visible through the viewports that were liberally sprinkled about that particular module. It gave Watkins the impression that this module was their living quarters. As for the fourth module, it was dark, and while it seemed intact, there were several dents and scars on the hull of the station module, like it had barely survived the blast and subsequent debris hammering into it. The final module was ripped in half, and didn¡¯t appear to be used. All in all, there wasn¡¯t much left of the place, and Watkins could feel his mood darken as he realized that the odds of his crew surviving were slim. Still, he had to see for himself what remained aboard the battered station¡¯s remains. As the range closed, they were nearly into maximum range for his missiles when things started happening. A targeting scan hit his ship, and the power plant on the kobold ship began to warm up. Watkins was surprised when his ship was hailed by the station. ¡°How should we handle this? Is there anything I should know if we talk to the kobolds?¡± Watkins asked Lani. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, though these creatures generally respect strength, so don¡¯t appear weak or too friendly. Also, unless you want them to think you¡¯re a ship full of halflings, which is probably not a good idea, you better just do audio only,¡± Lani suggested. ¡°Got it, here we go,¡± Watkins said, accepting the direct communication link with the station. ¡°What you think you doing here? This is our territory, the Scale Breaker Clan,¡± a shrill and hissing kobold voice said. It was obvious the kobold hailing them was trying to appear tough but was doing a rather poor job of it. If anything, Watkins pegged the kobold speaking with them as frightened. The bad part was, frightened peopled tended to do stupid things. Now, he had to figure out how to reply to the kobold. Watkins didn¡¯t necessarily want to pick a fight if he could avoid it, but he also was damn sure going to get his MOBS aboard the station to see if he could find his crew. Maybe it would be best to start out firm, but diplomatic before he lit them up with laser fire and missiles. Before replying, he had both missile tubes loaded, and his main guns trained onto the kobold ship. There might be some defenses on the station, but so far, his scans hadn¡¯t revealed any threats. Activating the comm link, Watkins responded. ¡°This is Captain Wakins of the USS Canon. We are here to inspect the station. Stand down and allow us to do our inspection and we will leave you in peace once we are done,¡± Watkins said. A reply wasn¡¯t long in coming. ¡°What species you? You ship is odd, but whoever you are, you can leave-flee now,¡± was all the kobold said in reply. ¡°Lani, what are the odds that they¡¯ve loaded our crew, or your server onto their ship? I know you don¡¯t have all your information on the kobolds, but I want your best guess before I shove a missile up their main thruster,¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I would say that it¡¯s a very low probability that they¡¯re aboard. The stasis pods and my server would be stored in a secured area and hidden from casual observation. They¡¯d have to have torn the station apart to find them. Even if they did find them, until they had a buyer, they¡¯d probably leave them aboard the station to save room on their ship for plunder if they encountered an unsuspecting victim out in the shipping lanes. We¡¯re talking about very specialized equipment, and unless they wanted to sell them at scrap value, they¡¯d have to spend time looking for a buyer who not only had a need for the device, but also wouldn¡¯t ask too many questions,¡± Lani explained. ¡°Attention station, power down your targeting array and stand by to be boarded. This is your last warning,¡± Watkins growled. ¡°This last warning? No, this is last warning, I warning you that you dead now,¡± the kobold hissed before cutting off comms. A threat indicator appeared automatically in Watkins¡¯ vision as the missile on the kobold ship¡¯s hull ignited its engine and hurled toward them. Missile launch detected. Chapter 38. Battered Foe. Chapter 38. Battered Foe. ¡°Make that two missiles, I see a second one being fired from the station. Point defenses are active. Lani, see if you can help our point defense targeting accuracy,¡± Watkins ordered. ¡°On it, we¡¯re relatively close, but the missiles haven¡¯t had any time to build up their velocity,¡± Lani replied. ¡°Missile one away, I¡¯m targeting their ship,¡± Watkins said, firing one of his missiles in response to the kobold attack. The feeling was a strange one as the door protecting the torpedo tube slid aside and the missile ignited. He could feel the weapon leave his ship yet he still maintained a thread of contact with it. ¡°Just one?¡± Lani asked, noting that he hadn¡¯t fired both weapons that were loaded. ¡°Yes, they¡¯re out of missiles, and if I can pull the rest of their teeth without doing too much damage, then we¡¯ll have a windfall of salvage and perhaps some new schematics we can unlock. I¡¯d rather not blow the ship to bits if I can help it, and I definitely don¡¯t want to risk the station if my people might still be hidden aboard,¡± Watkins explained. The two kobold missiles had a lock on his vessel, and Watkins held off on any evasive maneuvers for the moment. To begin evasion early would do little to break the targeting lock on his ship, and it would degrade the accuracy of his point defense. Instead, he¡¯d wait until the missiles were on their final approach before trying to avoid them. Pulses of laser fire reached out toward the incoming threat, but this time, he didn¡¯t add the main battery fire to the point defense. Watkins wanted to save the surprise of his main batteries and use them to crush the opposition. With a bit of fine tuning on his ship positioning, he was able to bring all four point defense lasers on target. Lani was adding an estimated 5.243% improvement to his accuracy, and after only a few volleys the first missile was taken out. The second weapon followed the fate of its comrade a few seconds later. Neither had come anywhere close to his ship. His enemy hadn¡¯t been idle either and the ship was pulling away from the station and turning to bring its single point defense laser on target. Another beam began to pulse out from underneath the boarding hatch where the station had hidden it behind some wreckage. It was an interesting bit of subterfuge, as a small panel was blasted into space to reveal the point defense laser. Unlike Watkins, they didn¡¯t have the same processing power behind their point defense. To add to the kobold woes, they only had two weapons compared to the four that the Canon mounted. From the way they were engaging his single missile, Watkins could tell their point defenses weren¡¯t linked, and the kobold ship and station were doing things independently of each other. That might not matter much with a single missile to defend against, but if there had been multiple threats, their ability to defend themselves would be weakened over what they could have accomplished with integrated defenses. Despite the limited defensive measures, the kobold station finally got a hit on Watkins¡¯ missile, and he could feel his connection to the weapon sever at it was destroyed. ¡°I won¡¯t waste a second missile just yet, let them think we¡¯re out and that we intend to slug it out with our point defense lasers,¡± Watkins said. He had the empty tube reloaded and made ready for another strike if they needed it. That left him with only one missile in the magazine. Their missile production was slow and labor intensive for his drones, and the next missile only had about half its components ready for assembly. It was unlikely that it would be ready until the fight was over. ¡°Without a dedicated power supply, they¡¯ll have a hard time detecting that you have two main guns with the sensor suite the ship and station are running,¡± Lani added. She was right, their sensors were quite a bit weaker than what Watkins had, and his were only level 1 right now. In the future, he could already see the possibility of substantial upgrades to not only the sensors, but the rest of his systems. ¡°It¡¯ll be a bit before we¡¯re in range with our main guns, we should plan for a boarding action on the station. If we can, I¡¯ll disable the kobold ship and let it drift until we¡¯re ready for it, the station is our primary target,¡± Watkins said as he looked over his core¡¯s limited data on boarding actions. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Lani sent him some additional data, but hers was limited as well. It seemed that the opening for his shuttle bay was a universal design and compatible with the makeshift boarding collar the kobolds had rigged to the station. If he could deal with the point defense gun the station mounted, the enemy had little they could do to prevent him from boarding. His core should have no problem overriding whatever electronic locks the kobolds would have on their boarding hatch, but if worse came to worse, he could have his drones cut through. There wasn¡¯t much finesse when it came to boarding a hostile foe, you had to electronically hack, or physically cut your way inside, then throw your troops into the fight. This meant the enemy had the advantage of time to prepare for the assault. He supposed, if the kobolds were suicidal, they could pack some explosives just inside the boarding hatch and try to damage his ship by detonating them when he tried to board. Watkins¡¯ scanners would detect any massive amounts of explosive materials the kobold pirates might possess, negating that threat. This was going to be a brawl, and he was curious how his halfling crew were going to do in real fight. That also brought up the fact that he was limited on troops. After completing the bow of his vessel, Watkins¡¯ command limit had jumped to 30. He had filled the empty slots, but now, he had a greater need for MOBS to board the enemy station. Ordering some of the drones to be reprocessed, Watkins began building more halfling shipmates. The new ratio would be 12 drones, and 18 halflings. With the limited amount of livable space on the station, and their need to crew their vessel, Watkins estimated the enemy forces to number somewhere around a dozen. The kobold ship would have likely at least double that number, but they could be dealt with separately. From the data he had access to in his core, Watkins could see the recommendation was for a boarding action to only be attempted with a 3 to 1 advantage in numbers over the defenders. In this type of fight, the defenders held the advantage of knowing the terrain and having the chance to prepare the battlefield ahead of time. There would likely be in covered fighting positions, and perhaps even have some deadly traps to slow him down. Added to that was the problem of his limited firepower. The level zero weapons and gear weren¡¯t all that impressive, and with only a couple of shots for each plasma rifle, he wasn¡¯t going to win a shootout. Despite all the disadvantages stacked against him, Watkins had one advantage that his opponent didn¡¯t possess, the ability to replace his losses. He could just have new reinforcements printed up in the fabricator. If his first attack wasn¡¯t successful, it was only a matter of time before he had another full group of 18 halfling shipmates to continue the fight. His foes were only going to get weaker with each casualty, while replacing losses only cost him some biomass, a bit of salvage, and the time needed to build them. There was the possibility that the kobolds could beat his first boarding party and decide to counterattack, but if he left a couple halflings behind to guard the shuttle bay on his ship, it might dissuade the kobolds from getting any ideas about counter boarding. If the enemy did manage to counterattack, he was confident that the time it would take the kobolds to cut through his interior hatches and reach his core, Watkins would have more than enough defenders. If the worst happened, he could always throw some of his drones into the fight to slow down the kobolds. The drones weren¡¯t exactly efficient combatants, but they could do some damage if they got up close and personal with a kobold. Before any boarding actions could commence, he had to win the space battle. The kobold ship had pulled well away from the station but remained close enough that the two of them could cover each other with their point defense guns. Looking the two over, he confirmed that the ship would be the first target for his main guns. His weapons greatly outranged the kobold point defense lasers, and he adjusted his course to keep out of the enemy weapons range. Targeting the kobold ship¡¯s single weapon, Watkins fired his main guns as they came to bear on the target. His first volley wasn¡¯t what he had hoped for, but one of the beams grazed the side of the kobold ship. Shield energy flickered under the assault, easily shrugging off the glancing blow. His next two shots were a bit better, and both slammed into the bow of the kobold ship, which was just now beginning to react by starting evasive maneuvers. Kobold shields flickered again but held up to twin strikes. Only one shot hit on the third volley, and he watched the shields flicker and die. The tail end of the beam cut into the thinly armored deck of the kobold ship. He hammered them again, and one shot finally managed to find and melt the kobold point defense laser. The other shot penetrated the bow, and Watkins could detect atmosphere venting out of the hull breach. He worked his way around the kobold ship, easily punching holes in it, and in the trio of cargo containers mounted to the vessel. He also destroyed any maneuver thrusters that his sensors could locate, leaving the ship little chance of avoiding his attacks. Eventually, Watkins¡¯ maneuvers gave him an angle on the kobold¡¯s main drive, which he took out with two more volleys of main gun fire. A single maneuver thruster lit up and was quickly taken down. The kobold ship was dead in the water and unable to fight, he could ignore it for the time being. Now he had to take on the station and see what awaited him and Lani inside. Chapter 39. Station Assault. Chapter 39. Station Assault. ¡°I¡¯m going to see about getting a shot at the station¡¯s point defense gun, then we¡¯ll close in and attempt to board,¡± Watkins said. The Canon remained outside of the range of the station¡¯s small point defense weapon, but he quickly realized there was a risk in firing his main guns from this far out. The weapons were too powerful and would not only destroy the enemy weapon but could also blast a hole in the station. He was going to have to get in close and slug it out with the station, but he was better armed, armored, and had the benefit of a functional shield. They closed the distance, and Watkins held his fire, wanting to make sure his point defense guns hit the target and didn¡¯t miss and burn though the station¡¯s hull. The last thing they wanted was to board the station and find their fire had killed his crew. It meant he was going to have to take some hits before his accuracy could be dialed in as close to 100% as possible. The enemy had no restrictions and began to fire as soon as Watkins was in range. It seemed that even though the station had a similar weapon to the one Watkins was using, their targeting ability wasn¡¯t as strong as his. His point defense guns outranged the station weapon, but he had to close well within their firing envelope if he wanted a sure hit. The first few pulses from the station¡¯s point defense were thrown off target by Watkins¡¯ evasive maneuvers. As the range continued to close, he found avoiding their shots was becoming difficult. A single pulse glanced off his shield and Watkins could feel the energy flowing through his shields struggle to repel the shot. One after another, the point defense laser pulses poked at his ship. After two more shots, he could feel the shield pop as the shield generator shut down. It would take some time before it could activate again, but it was connected to his core, and not some normal power source. Watkins could tell that the down time for his shields was going to be far shorter than any opponent with a traditional system. Blasts started to pepper his hull, and Watkins began a slow rotation of his ship to keep the enemy from them targeting the same area. Each blast dug into the armor, which vaporized and managed to ablate into tiny particles that interfered with any follow up shots to the same area. The experience was painful for Watkins, but not unbearable. What would happen when larger ship¡¯s guns, or even missiles struck his hull was concerning. He was not looking forward to that level of pain, and he also realized that it was probably going to happen at some point in his new existence. For now, he could endure the pin prick feeling that hit him every time the point defense laser landed a hit. The damage the enemy was doing was negligible and it would take a long time for their single weapon to cause him any real problems. ¡°The hit chance is up to 98.231%, that¡¯s about as good as it¡¯s going to get. I¡¯m taking the shot,¡± Watkins said. ¡°You can do it, Watkins,¡± Lani encouraged him. It was not only his crew that might be aboard that station, but also more of Lani¡¯s data. They both had important things riding on this shot. Like slowly pressing a trigger, Watkins lined up his shot and fired off a single laser pulse at the enemy weapon. His shot was on target, and it slammed into the turret mechanism of the enemy laser. The enemy weapon kept firing, but it could no longer traverse or elevate, and with a small puff of a maneuvering thruster, the Canon was out of danger unless they could somehow rotate the station to bring their weapon to bear. Not wanting to risk the enemy repairing the weapon somehow, Watkins fired a second time, this hit landed on the barrel housing the laser¡¯s focussing array. Half of the laser¡¯s barrel melted and broke away from the weapon. There was no way for the kobolds, who he doubted had anything like his drones, to repair it before the boarding actions was over and the battle for the station was decided one way or another. ¡°I¡¯m taking us in, time to board that station,¡± Watkins announced, more to bolster his spirits than anything. He was anxious about his crew and found that talking through his actions helped. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Watkins checked in on his MOBS production, happy to see he was up to 15 halflings that were ready to go and fully equipped. The last few additions would be ready before they docked at the boarding collar. Moving his forces into the shuttle bay where the cargo airlock was located, Watkins noticed something was missing from his ship. ¡°Lani, I¡¯m going to try and create some cover for our troops in the shuttle bay,¡± Watkins said. There was no way he was going to halt any existing research to develop internal defenses, but what he wanted for this fight should be easy enough for his drones to accomplish without a dedicated schematic. He started by cutting into the decking. A half dozen large panels were cut and then hinged on one side. The drones then connected a simple mechanism to raise and lower the panels. When raised, the panels provided cover for his halfling MOBS. If they crouched down, the MOBS would be completely protected. Watkins considered cutting view ports into the panels but realized that he didn¡¯t need them. His MOBS were extensions of himself and completely under his control. Their eyes and other senses worked like a normal member of their species would, but they could also see and hear everything Watkins could through their link. If an enemy boarded them, his MOBS defending the ship would know exactly the right time to pop out and engage. He tested out his defenses a few times, raising and lowering the panels to make sure they operated smoothly. Watkins could feel Lani watching his work, and it wasn¡¯t long before she came up with the suggestion of calling the retractable panels an automated barricade. Needing to test out his defenses, he had a halfling fire it¡¯s two plasma rifle shots at one of the barricades. The shots didn¡¯t penetrate, but the decking wasn¡¯t going to hold up to a third shot, which he tested with the same halfling firing its one pistol shot at the barricade, completely burning through it. A quick check at their approach confirmed he had a bit of time remaining. Drones were ordered to reinforce the barricades, using up some of his precious salvage to thicken and reinforce each barricade. That also required a bit of work on the decking to make sure they¡¯d sit flush with the deck when retracted. He wanted a neat and tidy ship, and barricades sticking up an inch from the deck was not only an eyesore and tripping hazard, but it would also reveal the location of his defenses if an enemy was somehow able to do reconnaissance on his ship. Two of his halflings could comfortably fit behind each barricade, but he only had six ready to go when their ship connected with flexible docking collar on the kobold station. He half expected the enemy to jettison the collar, which might buy them a few more minutes before he reconnected directly with his ship. Instead, they seemed content to let him board without any additional delay. ¡°I¡¯m going to send most of our troops onto the station, but I¡¯ll hold two of the halflings back to help defend against a counterattack on the shuttle bay. Can you help our MOBS in any way during the fight?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I don¡¯t have the same level of control over the combat MOBS as I do the drones, especially once they leave our ship, but I estimate I can bump the accuracy of three of them by 1.214%,¡± Lani explained. ¡°Every little bit will help,¡± Watkins answered. He could feel Lani boosting the three lead halflings as he felt a connection to the station¡¯s docking hatch link with his core. Watkins was locked out, but he instinctively knew how to bypass the security features of the station. His core was only level zero, but he proved to be much more powerful than the security systems aboard the station. ¡°Hatch is opening,¡± Watkins said. His MOBS stood, raised their plasma rifles and prepared to charge out from the barricades as the hatch on the Canon and the one on the station both started to open. He also had five of his drones just outside the shuttle bay, ready to move in and make any repairs he might need or help repel an attack if the kobolds decided to be aggressive. When the hatches were halfway down, two small objects sailed into the shuttle bay. His mind realized they were grenades right before they both exploded. One halfling was cut down as fragments pierced the thin, flexible head covering of his shipsuit. Another halfling took some fragments in his arm, but that MOBS was still functional. A replacement halfling was already under construction the moment the other one had fallen. Watkins had set an automatic protocol to replace any losses without needing his direct intervention. It only took a few minutes to fabricate a new MOBS, but every second counted in a battle, and Watkins couldn¡¯t afford even the small delay that waiting for a direct order might cause. The barricades proved their worth as most of the grenade was blocked. Another pair of grenades sailed in, but this time, his MOBS were all crouched behind their barricades and fully protected. It was going to delay his attack, but at least the kobolds didn¡¯t have good throwing arms, and all the grenades landed in front of the barricades, not over them where the MOBS would be completely exposed. A final volley of grenades was thrown into his ship before the kobolds either ran out of them or wanted to save the remainder for something else. This was the moment he was waiting for, and the halflings charged out from the barricades to begin their assault. Watkins waited to see what tricks the kobolds had cooked up to stop them. Chapter 40. Exchange of Fire. Chapter 40. Exchange of Fire. Watkins watched his halflings charge out of the shuttle bay and into the boarding tube leading to the station. Blasts of laser fire lashed out from inside the station, picking off halflings as they advanced. The weapons didn¡¯t seem to pack quite the same punch as his plasma pistols, but both weapons were able to burn through flesh and armor. The simple protection of the level zero armor that his minions wore proved ineffective against the kobold lasers. Watkins¡¯ view of the battle was limited once his MOBS left the ship, and a new system prompt appeared as his core tried to explain what was happening. Your MOBS have left your vessel to assault a target. While your MOBS can operate for a time outside your influence, their abilities are limited, and they will deteriorate without your core powering them. The MOBS level and your core level determine how long they can be outside your influence before their systems start to break down. Currently, your core is at Level 0, and your Halfling Shipmates are at Level 1. This will give your minion 30 minutes of independent operation before decay sets in. While off your ship, you may issue your MOBS general orders, or link with one of them directly so you can direct their actions from the frontlines. His troops were on a timer, and he¡¯d have to bring them back aboard if the battle dragged on. Concentrating, Watkins could feel the link with his MOBS, it was faint now that they were off his ship, but it was still there. They had taken casualties, lots of them, and his fabricator was going to be working overtime. Five MOBS were still functional, and he linked to one of them to get a view of the action. His MOBS had followed their orders, charging forward to attack the kobold defenders. Just like on his ship, the kobolds had defenses they had cobbled together defensive barricades to protect their forces. Unlike Watkins¡¯ automated system of barricades, these were clunky portable models that had to be lugged into position and bolted to the decking. The docking collar opened into a large cargo hold of the station, empty of everything but the defenders and their barricades. A single large hatch was positioned on the far bulkhead, directly behind the lines of barricades. A total of two longer barricades defended the cargo hold. Watkins¡¯ fallen halflings littered the deck around the first barricade, but it seems that was where the MOBS had finally drawn blood on the enemy. Three kobolds lay dead behind the barricade, and the surviving halflings were clambering over the first barricade to assault the kobolds defending the second one. Some of the kobolds in the first line of defense must have fallen back when they thought they were about to be overrun, as a full ten kobolds were packed together behind the second barricade. Watkins¡¯ halflings must have saved some of their firepower as they began to fire at the kobold defenders. Unfortunately, without Watkins directing them, the halflings had followed their previous orders and didn¡¯t stop to engage in a gunfight. Instead, they fired as the climbed over the barricade to continue their charge. Without cover, his surviving MOBS were blasted apart by the kobold weapons. Unlike his troops, the kobolds only seemed to be armed with pistols and various melee weapons. They wore shipsuits similar to the ones his MOBS wore, and that led Watkins to believe it was some sort of common design that had been shared among the spacefaring species. He watched a kobold fire several shots from a laser pistol, but the weapon ran dry quickly. They had more than the puny one or two shots that Watkins¡¯ MOBS could fire, but not by a huge margin. Other than the few grenades they had opened the battle with, the kobolds weren¡¯t that well armed. This first attack had only taken out three of the enemy, but they couldn¡¯t replace their losses. Watkins had replacement troops already being printed up. The two halflings he had held back from the attack were now manning the barricades aboard his ship, ready to engage any kobolds that wanted to stick their snouts in range. ¡°I¡¯m getting a frantic comm message from the station to the ship, I¡¯ll translate for you, Watkins,¡± Lani said. He hadn¡¯t noticed, as most of his focus was on the boarding action, and he hadn¡¯t expected any messages. ¡°¡­is halflings! We need your¡­¡± ¡°Sorry, we cannot comply. Engine is dead¡­weapons gone¡­done¡­in order¡­casualties.¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°They¡¯re terrified of the halflings for some reason, at least that will work to our advantage,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Yes, let¡¯s hope that fear keeps them on their side of the station, and they don¡¯t feel the need to come over here and test our defenses,¡± Lani said. ¡°I¡¯d rather they did attack us. There don¡¯t seem to be that many kobolds, and we¡¯re already up to four defenders with another joining the team in under a minute,¡± Watkins said. A third halfling MOBS had joined his pair of defenders in the shuttle bay and the fourth was on its way from the fabrication room. If the kobolds came out from behind their defenses, that would only help with their kill ratio. Right now, his MOBS were dying at about a 5 to 1 ratio. He estimated that if the kobolds went on the offensive, the ratio would improve to at least 3 to 1. ¡°How do you think they¡¯ll react when another fifteen halflings renew the attack in a few minutes?¡± Lani asked. Watkins¡¯ vision over the kobold cargo hold vanished when the last MOBS had fallen, so he had no idea what they were up to. He hoped they would panic as the attacks continued without letup. A panicked foe was still dangerous, but much easier to kill. ¡°I just wonder how many other kobolds are hiding on the station. We may be here a while if we have to root them out of every hidey hole. I just want to get a chance to explore this place and see if we can find what we¡¯re looking for,¡± Watkins replied. Minutes passed, and his troops were slowly reinforced. When the command limit was reached again, Watkins ordered a second wave into the kobold ship. This time, he commanded his troops to take cover behind the first barricade. Once there, they would exchange fire with the kobolds manning the second line of defense. Keeping his view centered on the lead halfling, Watkins watched their charge. For such small bodies and legs, the halflings could really move when they wanted to. It appeared that the kobolds were still back at the second line of defense as no fire came at them until they cleared the boarding collar. His MOBS ran toward the kobold barricade, taking cover behind it, but not before they lost six of their number in the charge. The remaining nine halfling MOBS began to pop up and fire single shots at the kobolds. Watkins tried having them slow their rate of fire, and alternate which MOBS were firing so they could keep the kobolds guessing. His rifles only had two shots in their magazine and the pistols, only one. Still, with nine halflings firing, they could fire a shot every few seconds. Both his MOBS and the kobolds seemed about equal in their accuracy, but the kobolds now had both the numbers and the firepower advantage over his troops. The halfling shipmates were slowly picked off, but the kobolds had suffered two new casualties, dropping the total number of defenders down to eight. This skirmish dragged on long enough so that when the last MOBS fell, Watkins already had six replacements ready to go. Once again, he waited patiently for more of the MOBS to be produced before attacking. A total of thirty halflings had attacked the station so far, and if the Canon had been a normal vessel, that would have represented a significant portion of its crew. ¡°About ready for our third attack,¡± Lani started to say, but she paused a long time before continuing. ¡°Three is the lucky if the first two are failures. I think that was a saying from when I was alive. Imagine that¡­a simple saying from my old life was hidden away in my server. How much else is in there waiting for me to discover, and how much of you is hidden away in your core,¡± Lani said with some emotion in her voice. ¡°We¡¯ve both lost so much, and every tiny bit we recover is cause for celebration. Do you want to do the honors and order the next wave in?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I¡¯d like that, whenever you¡¯re ready,¡± Lani replied. Watkins gave her the digital equivalent of a nod, and she spoke out over the intercom system. ¡°Charge forward MOBS, eliminate the kobold menace!¡± Lani said with more drama than Watkins expected. To humor her, he had the halflings shout out a battle cry as the third wave began their attack. Sadly, the halfling battle cry wasn¡¯t much more than a shrill shout that he rather doubted would intimidate anyone. Like with the last attack, Watkins had the halfling MOBS charge to the barricade and begin to fire on the kobolds. This time, eleven of his MOBS survived the charge to the barricade, and the two sides began to engage each other. Instead of holding back, Watkins had them fire all their weapons before ducking completely behind the barricade. When their weapons were finally empty, seven surviving halflings were taking cover behind the barricade, and in exchange, they had dropped three more of the kobold defenders. Watkins sent any new MOBS reinforcements directly into the fight. The first two were blasted apart before they reached the others, but after that, about half made it to the barricade and began firing on the kobolds. As each weapon recharged a single shot, the MOBS would pop up and fire. It was just pecking at the enemy rather than a fearsome barrage, but it was proving effective as the kobolds began to fall. Each enemy that fell reduced the return fire and allowed the reinforcement MOBS trickling in to reach the barricade in growing numbers. By the time Watkins had eleven halflings behind the barricade, only three kobolds were left alive. Instead of staying and fighting, the kobolds slunk down low, using the barricade to hide their movements as they ran toward a large cargo hatch on the bulkhead behind their defensive position. Two of the kobolds were torn apart by fire, and the last one was able to hit the switch that opened the hatch before it was also killed. Pushing forward, Watkins had his minions take position at the first barricade, covering the opening hatch as they waited for their numbers to build up again, and for their weapons to fully recharge. A clanking sound was heard from beyond the hatchway. It almost sounded like heavy metallic footsteps that were drawing closer. Something was coming, and it wasn¡¯t just a simple kobold pirate. Chapter 41. Mechs and Contacts. Chapter 41. Mechs and Contacts. Watkins had twelve halfling MOBS behind the barricade, and all had at least one charge in their plasma rifles. Before he dealt with the kobold ship floating helplessly out there, he was going to have to take the time to upgrade the gear for his MOBS, what he had wasn¡¯t quite up to the task. The sounds of whatever was approaching grew louder, drawing all his attention onto the darkened hatch opening that led deeper into the station. The thing that stepped into view wasn¡¯t familiar to Watkins. It was a bipedal machine, but instead of arms, it had long, dull blades sticking out. A clear armored hatch on the front revealed the kobold inside that was operating the machine. A red light strobed on the top of one shoulder and what looked like a weapon of some sort was mounted on the other shoulder. ¡°What is that?¡± Watkins asked as the huge, mechanized creature stomped its way into the cargo hold. His MOBS didn¡¯t have any concerns, they simply knew it was hostile and followed their programming to engage the enemy. Multiple plasma blasts slammed into the machine. Most of his MOBS had targeted the kobold operator, who seemed poorly protected inside the clear bubble canopy. His MOBS seemed to have the right idea as their plasma bolts easily cracked through the canopy and burned through the kobold pilot. As the kobold slumped over in death, so did the mech it was piloting. The machine pitched forward and collapsed in a heap. ¡°I think those are cargo loaders of some type, the kobolds are tying to use them as weapons. They sharpened the loading arms into blades,¡± Lani explained. The design of the machines made a bit more sense now, he could see that they weren¡¯t much more than futuristic forklifts, not a military mech of some type. It appeared the kobolds had more than one of these things as two more stomped out from the open hatch. These kobold pilots were a bit smarter than the first comrade that had led the assault. Turning the upper body of the mechs to the side, the vulnerable canopy was partially protected by the mech¡¯s bulk. It seemed to hamper the kobold operators a bit as their pace slowed and they seemed to have trouble walking in a straight line while the upper portion of the mech was turned. Watkins kept waiting for them to attack with the weapon on the mech¡¯s shoulder, but so far, they hadn¡¯t done anything but march toward the barricade his MOBS were using as cover. A second, weaker volley of plasma fire lashed out, and half his MOBS used pistols since their rifles hadn¡¯t held a full charge. The new attack was split between the two attacking mechs, and didn¡¯t have the same impact as their first volley. A third volley, consisting of only three pistol shots was the end of Watkins¡¯ ranged attacks for the moment. He pulled the MOBS back behind the barricade line closest to the boarding collar, hoping to buy time for his MOBS¡¯ weapons to recharge another shot. The fire they had unleashed, while missing any kill shots on the kobold operators, did some damage. These machines were stout, but they were designed to take the abuse of a heavy work environment, not weapons fire. Both had hydraulic fluid of some sort leaking from their mechs, and the one on the left was limping as one leg wasn¡¯t functioning correctly. A thirteenth MOBS entered the fight, running to join the other defenders behind the barricade. It fired both shots from its rifle and the one charge in its pistol before standing there to wait with its fellows. ¡°Watkins, maybe we should attempt to engage those things in melee? Our MOBS should be able to crack through the canopy without much trouble, and those cargo loaders aren¡¯t exactly nimble opponents,¡± Lani suggested. ¡°Good idea, even if they wipe out our MOBS the loaders are too slow to make it to my core before another wave is ready to fight,¡± Watkins replied. He had been stuck in modern thinking, relying only on firearms and forgetting the power of a blade or hammer when needed. That reminded him, his drones were sitting ducks for the kobolds armed with laser weapons, but against these machines, they were more than a match. He sent the five drones waiting outside the shuttle bay into the fight. It would take them a bit to get there, but his MOBS were already charging forward, much to the shock of the kobold mech operators. Stolen story; please report. The enemy didn¡¯t take long to react and swung the torsos of their mechs around, using the forklift-like arms of the machines to slash and crush several of Watkins¡¯ MOBS. His troops had a variety of hand weapons to use, it seemed his fabricator automatically created a mix of them when it printed up an equipment set for his MOBS. Some only had long daggers, but others had hammers or axes to use. Daggers proved mostly ineffective, the canopy on the mechs might not be armored to hold up to plasma fire, but they were sturdy enough to hold off damage you might expect on a construction site. The axes and hammers created small cracks on the canopy, but they would take some time to break through. Unfortunately, the kobolds weren¡¯t going to give them the time they needed and the weapon over the shoulder of the mechs fired up. They turned out to be welders, not some plasma rifle. Still, a welder was more than enough to kill one of his halfling MOBS. Even worse, the two mechs began to coordinate their attacks, using their torches and forklift arms to bash at MOBS that their partner couldn¡¯t reach on their own. Some of his MOBS proved more enterprising, and one armed with a dagger began to grab onto the mech legs and saw at the exposed cables and hydraulic lines that were mounted to the mech¡¯s chassis. One of the mechs stopped moving as it finally lost most of its hydraulic fluid. The other kept fighting, but without its ally, had no way to reach many of the MOBS swarming over it. The two mechs had managed to kill ten of his MOBS, but the remaining few were slowly getting the job done. Watkins¡¯ drones also finally made it into the compartment and quickly clambered up the mechs, attacking with their tools and welding torch legs that proved more effective than the melee weapons of the MOBS. Both kobolds, seeing their mechs were no longer effective, drew a pistol from their belts and popped open the canopy, firing as they unclipped the harness that held them in. One pilot was taken down by a hammer blow to the face, but the other managed to blast one of the MOBS and a drone before it was dragged down and killed. Silence reigned over the cargo hold as the last mech toppled over. With reinforcements trickling in, Watkins ordered the MOBS to defend the barricade closest to the open hatchway that led deeper into the station. His four surviving drones had another task, they needed to begin salvage operations. Two started to cut the mechs down into manageable pieces to be dragged over to the Canon, while the other two were tasked the grisly job of recovering the remains of the fallen. There was a lot of easy biomass to recycle, and plenty of salvage from the mechs and gear of the defenders and his MOBS. He had one of his MOBS check out the kobold laser pistols. They were a better design than his weapons, and like the plasma pistol, would slowly recharge their magazine over the span of a few minutes. With five shots ready to go when fully charged, he had his mobs switch out their plasma pistols for the laser weapons the kobolds had been wielding. Watkins still liked his plasma rifles as primary weapons. They had a lot more punch than the pistols, despite their limited magazine capacity. Between the defenders at the barricades, and the mech pilots, he had enough laser pistols for each of his MOBS to have one, and an extra that he had a drone bring back to the reprocessor. It might help Watkins unlock a new schematic if he was lucky. It was a waiting game once more as his reinforcements filtered in. At least the delay gave the MOBS¡¯ weapons time to fully recharge before their next push. Watkins also slotted a replacement drone into the build queue but gave it lower priority than his MOBS. He wasn¡¯t hurting for workers, but it was better to make sure he wasn¡¯t down one drone for longer than necessary. After the cargo mech counterattack, the kobolds had been quiet. They had taken a total of sixteen casualties, which made Watkins think that they were down to the dregs of their manpower, or koboldpower in this case. He also kept an eye on the kobold ship still drifting helplessly in space. So far, he could see no signs of repair drones or work crews outside the ship. With the damage he had done to the enemy ship, there was no way they¡¯d get underway or have a weapon ready to fire, unless they got out on the hull to rebuild or replace what had been destroyed. The ship had its teeth pulled, but Watkins was going to keep an eye on things to make sure it didn¡¯t become a threat again. ¡°Captain Watkins, do you see that on our sensors?¡± Lani asked. With a lot of his attention on the boarding action, Watkins noticed the sensor returns a few seconds after Lani. Two blips had just passed the outer range of his sensors, both were charging hard toward the station. ¡°I¡¯ll bring the MOBS aboard, we¡¯ve got company. We¡¯ll have to deal with the station after we see who our new visitors are,¡± Watkins said, sending out the order to his MOBS and drones to return. He also sent more of his drones to help scour clean the detritus of the cargo bay fight. There was a lot of quick and easy salvage to recover, and he wasn¡¯t to waste a brick of it with the potential of another space battle bearing down on him. Chapter 42. Railgun Woes. Chapter 42. Railgun Woes. Data on the approaching ships slowly fed into Watkins¡¯ core. The two vessels were formed up close enough that their point defenses could coordinate, but far enough for evasive maneuvers without getting in each others¡¯ way. His halfling MOBS were all aboard now, but the drones were still hauling in the last of the cargo loader mech pieces and the bodies from both his MOBS and the enemy kobolds. That would more than replace what he¡¯d expended to create the multiple waves of MOBS and their equipment. Watkins tamped down his eagerness to push his forces deeper into the station to search for his lost crew, but the incoming ships were a threat he couldn¡¯t ignore. A quick check showed that he had two missiles loaded in the torpedo tubes, and two reloads ready to go. A pair of drones had been tasked with missile production, and while it was a slow process currently, he needed as many as possible for the coming fight. As the last drone hauled aboard a leg from the final cargo loader mech, Watkins sealed their shuttle bay hatch and pulled away from the station. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he would unlock some type of mech from the parts he was going to reprocess. Once safely away from the bulk of the station, he ignited his main drives and set a course to meet the incoming threat. The two ships were coasting in, no longer under main drive power, but with plenty of velocity. Starting from a dead stop, it would take time for his limited level zero drives to get Watkins up to speed. The single sensor buoy near the station was still functional and with its data added to his ship¡¯s sensors, he was going to get a good peek at what they were up against. The incoming ships probably didn¡¯t have a firm fix on the Canon yet. He could only detect commercial grade scanners and the power they were putting out told him they weren¡¯t working at 100% efficiency. From the kobold vessels he had seen in action, proper maintenance and replacement parts were both in short supply in this system. ¡°Are you detecting any comms traffic from those two ships?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°No, which is strange, if these were kobold reinforcements, I¡¯d have expected them to announce themselves,¡± Lani said. ¡°It could be they were trying to sneak in and hit us before we were ready. They might not have expected us to detect them so soon,¡± Watkins replied. Time passed as the distance between the Canon and the two mystery ships rapidly closed. All his losses, including the single drone casualty, had been replaced, and the fabricator was working on missile components. Watkins estimated that they might have one additional missile completed before they entered engagement range. ¡°I don¡¯t think those are kobold ships, look at their drive signatures,¡± Watkins said. They didn¡¯t match with the kobold vessel information he had, but they were very similar to the halfling ship that had shadowed him earlier. ¡°Looks like halflings, in that case, we should engage from as long a range as possible, remember, they like to close in and board,¡± Lani confirmed. ¡°Too bad we don¡¯t have much data on their weapon systems. All we know is that they had the beehive point defense weapons we¡¯re using. They somehow knocked out the kobold ship¡¯s drive during the fight, but they didn¡¯t use a laser,¡± Watkins said, replaying the previous battle data. ¡°There are several things that could have happened. It¡¯s not common, but simple rail guns aren¡¯t that hard to produce. The halflings may have cobbled one together if they didn¡¯t have access to laser weapons as their main battery. It could also be that they don¡¯t carry much at all in the way of weaponry, and that the kobold drive malfunctioned under the stress they were placing on it,¡± Lani offered. The mention of rail guns intrigued Watkins. He wasn¡¯t all that sold on lasers as his main battery, and a rail gun sounded more like what he was familiar with from his time on Earth. Sure, it didn¡¯t have the boom and recoil of a traditional gun, but it hurled a projectile and didn¡¯t just try to burn through the foe. He put aside thoughts on new guns and instead concentrated on the two ships that were rapidly closing into missile range. There was little doubt that they were hostile, but he still felt the need to confirm. At least there was a bit of time before either of them could fire. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Attention vessels approaching the station, state your identity and your purpose,¡± Watkins ordered though his comms system. ¡°You are probably wasting your time, the other halfling ship only sent one message, and that was after they had disabled their prey,¡± Lani said. There was no reply, and Watkins wasn¡¯t idle while they waited. He targeted the vessel on the right, intending to fire both missiles at it once the range closed a bit. A single missile, especially the rather primitive versions he had access to, was likely to get sniped fairly quickly by the enemy¡¯s point defense. Hopefully two missiles would be enough to do the job. They entered the outer envelope of missile range, but Watkins held his fire, the closer they could get, the better the chance of slipping at least one missile through their defenses. His main guns also slewed toward the target, also aiming at the rightmost halfling ship. Destroying one early in the fight seemed the best course of action rather than just mauling both ships and potentially leaving their weapon systems functional. ¡°Missile one and two away, reloading process activated,¡± Watkins said as the missiles flew from the bow of his ship and the two heavy doors began to close over the torpedo tubes. The missiles looked tiny in the launch bay designed to carry much heavier ordinance, but it was all he had at the moment, and in another minute, both tubes would be reloaded. His missiles tracked on the target, and he waited for them to enter the enemy point defense range. When that happened, he¡¯d activate the simple evasion patterns the missiles were capable of. His sensors flashed an urgent warning, something was heading toward them, something too fast for the point defenses to track. ¡°Hold on!¡± Watkins said to Lani as two small objects slammed into his ship. His shields flickered and died as the twin blows slammed into his hull. It felt like two punches in the gut, but Watkins ignored the pain and began to maneuver the ship in random patterns. It had only taken a fraction of a second for Watkins to realize two things. The first was that it was silly to tell Lani to ¡°hold on¡±, neither of them had any grasping limbs, not to mention that both he and Lani were securely mounted to the deck. The second, and more important, realization was that he had likely just been hit by the very railgun he had coveted earlier. ¡°Damn, one of them hit the shield generator, it¡¯ll be down for the fight,¡± Watkins said. ¡°So, railguns are being used by the halflings. They¡¯re rare, and have some significant downsides compared to beam weapons,¡± Lani said as the damage reports began to filter in. Like he had already realized, the only functioning wing of the shield generator was shattered by the blow, but it had slowed down the shot which subsequently bounced off his hull. The second shot that landed outside the CIC compartment and failed to penetrate the sophisticated armor of his hull, but it had been a close thing. Whatever they used for a projectile was imbedded in his hull, and a drone was already tasked with retrieving it for Watkins to examine. As long as he kept maneuvering in a random pattern, they enemy would be unlikely to get a bead on him again. ¡°A railgun really has no range limit, and they must have fired at us as soon as we were on their scanners. At least we now know to begin maneuvers early if we think we¡¯re possibly facing a halfling ship,¡± Lani said. The pain was fading, and Watkins was angry that he¡¯d been hit. His anger was more at himself for being a fool and not considering the threat of a railgun being fired at him this early in the fight. By keeping the same course, he made it easy for them to score a hit. Now, they were entering the range limit of his main guns, and it was time to hit back. He could feel more shots whizz by, and now that he knew what to look for, his sensors would give him some warning of incoming rounds. It might not be enough time to avoid the shot completely, but he could at least use the fraction of a second to angle his armor into the best position. His core calculated the targeting of the enemy ship. It was now maneuvering sluggishly in an attempt to throw off the incoming missiles. Just like with their sensors, the halfling ships weren¡¯t exactly state of the art with their maneuver drives. Watkins¡¯ main guns fired, the beams reaching out toward the halfling ship. It was a miss, but each shot made the next one easier as his core interpreted the way the halflings maneuvered. One beam from the next volley burned into the halfling ship¡¯s bow, and even at the long range, his sensors picked up the venting of some atmosphere around the strike. His foe had nowhere near the same armor protection that the Canon enjoyed. The two missiles began their final approach. He couldn¡¯t detect any point defense fire, but with the break in incoming railgun rounds heading toward him, it was likely the halfling guns had shifted from offensive fire to point defense. The first missile was destroyed and lost its connection to Watkins. His second missile was just about to land when a small explosion on the halfling ship¡¯s hull announced the firing of a beehive point defense. The missile was destroyed, but it had gotten close enough that the resulting blast opened a seam in the halfling ship¡¯s hull. A weak weld or hasty repair gave way, and a larger bloom of atmosphere vented from the halfling ship. ¡°Firing the second missile volley,¡± Watkins said, as the newly reloaded missiles launched out at the same target. His guns also hit the enemy hard, burning deep into the ship. The halfling vessel lost power and began to drift. There was still another ship out there, and it was getting closer with each passing second. Chapter 43. Guns Blazing. Chapter 43. Guns Blazing. Both missiles flew true, and the badly wounded halfling ship couldn¡¯t maneuver and didn¡¯t seem to be firing any point defense. Its comrade was content to move away from the stricken ship and instead of fleeing, it tried to close in on the Canon. Watkins shifted his main guns onto the bigger threat, beams already reaching out toward the target. ¡°The two ships are communicating but it¡¯ll take me a bit to crack their encryption. Unlike the kobolds, these halflings seem to care a bit more about operation security,¡± Lani said as Watkins also detected a burst of comms traffic that passed between the halfling vessels. ¡°We¡¯re in point defense range now, firing up ours,¡± Watkins said. He targeted the undamaged halfling ship not only with his two main guns, but also with his four point defense lasers. With both vessels aggressively maneuvering, it wasn¡¯t easy to get a lock with all four of his point defense weapons, but at any given time, at least two of the guns could be brought to bear on the target. ¡°Scratch one Halfling ship, but I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll get much in the way of salvage out of that one,¡± Lani said. Watkins shifted a tiny bit of his focus to review the sensor feed, watching as both missiles slammed into the target. On had hit just past the bow and the other amidship. His missiles didn¡¯t carry a large warhead, and the catastrophic destruction of the ship breaking apart was likely due to whatever energy source they used to power their vessel going into meltdown. A bit of the aft section, along with their main drive thruster, seemed to be mostly there, but the rest of the ship was now just a cloud of rapidly dispersing smaller bits that weren¡¯t worth the time of chasing down. There was plenty of salvage to be had after the battle, with both the station and the kobold vessel waiting for his attention. With his focus split, Watkins also noticed something new in his core interface. A notification icon showed three low priority messages were waiting for his attention. As he watched a fourth notification was added, and this time, the icon blinked with a more urgent orange color instead of the low priority green. Opening the notification would have to wait, the second halfling vessel was proving a more difficult target to engage than its comrade. The first vessel only had limited maneuverability, but this one seemed to have additional maneuver thrusters mounted on it. It still wasn¡¯t quite as nimble as the Canon, but it was close and was still closing the gap between them. The closer the two ships got to each other, the better the railgun aboard the halfling vessel performed. Even with its crude targeting systems, the computations that targeting system had to make were becoming less complicated by the second. Watkins was landing hits on the halfling ship, and a main gun blast had opened a wide gouge in the bow of the halfling ship. To their credit, the halfling crew managed to seal off the breach quickly, but the unmistakable effects of atmosphere leaking were noticed by Watkins¡¯ sensors. Like a stab in the back, Watkins felt a railgun round hammer into main drive. One drive nozzle was obliterated and the second was showing a red danger to operate icon in his core interface. He had to shut down the main drives until the drones could make repairs. A team of five drones was assigned to the task, but for the moment, it left him with just his maneuver thrusters to work with. The halfling ship was desperate to get closer, obviously wanting to board and end the gun duel it was ill-equipped to win. Watkins maneuvered to keep away from the enemy, and while they could close the distance between them, he could keep them from getting at his boarding hatch. He had the firepower advantage and put it to good use. Beam after beam, from both main guns and point defense lasers, lashed out at the halfling ship. The enemy¡¯s bow was being cut to shreds, but they seemed unconcerned about the damage as they hurled toward the Canon. Another railgun round hit on the starboard side of his ship. The round failed to penetrate the armored hull, but it did crack the armor over the fabrication room and a drone was assigned to do a temporary patch to seal in the atmosphere. His MOBS could survive for a short time in a low atmosphere environment, but it took power to replace lost atmosphere. Watkins needed all the power he had to operate his weapon systems along with the maneuver thrusters that were the only thing preventing the halfling ship from boarding them. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°How many crew do you estimate are on that ship?¡± Watkins asked Lani. He was starting to warm to the idea of possibly letting them board. The other vessel had been completely destroyed, and Watkins wanted not only the railgun schematic, but also a peek at any other tech the halflings might have at their disposal. His rough estimate, assuming some minor casualties from the damage he¡¯d already inflicted, was that anywhere from 20 to 30 of the halfling crew remained. ¡°A vessel like this probably doesn¡¯t have more than 50 crew at a maximum. These are rather slapdash converted freighters, though, and that could mean they¡¯re either packed to the gills with crew for boarding parties or they are running on a skeleton crew to conserve resources. I guess that¡¯s my long way of saying, I have no idea,¡± Lani admitted. ¡°Your estimate is higher than mine. I was considering letting them board and then trying to take their vessel after we wear them down,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Taking that ship mostly intact would be a huge boost for us, but I¡¯m afraid we might be overrun with numbers. Remember that we only command a limited number of MOBS at one time, and they¡¯re not equipped very well,¡± Lani added. Watkins considered his options, at first, he was tempted to scrap a few more drones and add to his total number of MOBS. That was a non-starter with his ship and several important systems like the main drives and shields that would need major work before they were functional again. At least 15 of the MOBS, the number initially assigned to board the kobold station, were also armed with laser pistols taken from the kobolds. He also had to take into consideration that his troops would be fighting on their own ship, getting all the advantages the defender had. He was also able to fabricate replacements, which, just like the kobolds on the station, the halflings weren¡¯t able to do. That would give him an eventual numerical advantage as the enemy took casualties they couldn¡¯t replace. He had some defenses already in place at the shuttle bay, and even with some of his drones out fixing the main drives, he could have additional defenses up quickly enough. It would just be more of the barricades, but those could make a big difference in both protecting his crew and buying time for replacements to be printed up and thrown into the battle. As he considered his options, another railgun round hammered into the bow, warping the door to the upper torpedo tube, but failing to penetrate the hull. His last missile was now locked in an inoperable tube. A pair of drones were sent to unload the missile from the tube and reload it in the still-operable lower tube. A potential magazine upgrade that could do that automatically was filed away for whenever he got back to researching upgrades to the torpedo tubes. ¡°What¡¯s your opinion Lani, do we risk letting them try to board?¡± Watkins asked. He valued Lani¡¯s opinion, not to mention they would share the same fate if they lost a boarding action. As he waited for her reply, Watkins landed another main gun hit amidships. A minor explosion from the area of impact blasted out a bus-sized section of hull. Atmosphere and what his sensors categorized as biological matter, were ejected into space. ¡°That hurt them badly, I think,¡± Lani commented. Even if the enemy board and win the fight, your core and my server are hidden well enough that we could eventually rebuild and fight back,¡± Lani suggested, seeming to warm to the idea of fighting this out in a boarding action. ¡°What about the fabricator? They could steal it, or destroy it when pillaging the ship?¡± Watkins asked. It would do them no good to survive and hide after the battle, only to locked away helplessly. ¡°It¡¯s too large for them to easily haul to their ship, and even if it is destroyed, as long as some of it survives, your drones should be able to rebuild it. I don¡¯t recall the halfling species being particularly bright, and unless they have an advanced scientific team, or catch the fabricator in the act of producing something, they¡¯ll likely not know what it even is. As long as we keep some drones in here with us as insurance, I think we¡¯ll be fine even if our MOBS lose the initial fight,¡± Lani offered. Watkins watched the rapidly approaching halfling ship. It hadn¡¯t been deterred by the heavy blow that had just struck and moved even closer as a pair of point defense lasers burned through the thin hull of the enemy ship, adding to its woes. Bright flashes erupted all along the ships hull, and for a moment, Watkins was worried it was about to have a catastrophic reactor explosion like the first ship had experienced. He realized what had really happened a second later, and threw all the power he could manage into the maneuver thrusters, desperately trying to bring them out of the line of fire. Those explosions weren¡¯t from ship damage, they were from the halflings firing off every beehive point defense weapon that they could aim in his direction. With the distance between them narrowed, Watkins had little time to maneuver his ship out the path of all those projectiles. He succeeded for the most part, but a sound like hail hitting the roof of car was heard as hundred of the pellets from the beehive weapon struck. Chapter 44. Defend the Ship. Chapter 44. Defend the Ship. The scattered pellets from the beehive weapon had no hope of breaching Watkins¡¯ hull, and they didn¡¯t even hurt much when they impacted. What they could do was damage one of the point defense mounts, and take out two of his maneuver thrusters. With his ability to outmaneuver the halfling ship taken away, it seemed like their decision on whether or not to let the enemy board had been decided for him. Watkins could still keep them at bay for a time, or probably destroy them, but another rail gun round hit, and this one hurt. It took out the forward deck gun even as his second battery fired into the mangled bow of the enemy ship once again. Checking his scanners, Watkins still couldn¡¯t tell where the railgun was mounted. The halflings had camouflaged it well, and the weapon didn¡¯t leave a telltale energy signature like his lasers to highlight where it was located. It was getting hard to keep his guns on target as the enemy drew closer. He only got the occasional angle on the bow of the enemy ship, but his shots there no longer seemed to be doing much. Only a few showed the telltale signs of a fresh hull breach, and Watkins began to wonder if they had lost all their atmosphere. ¡°We¡¯ll let them board, and then, after we kill off most of their crew, we¡¯ll take what¡¯s left of their ship intact,¡± Watkins finally decided. He had some time and pulled all his drones off other duties to begin adding additional defenses aboard the ship. All he could build were more of the retractable barricades, but he had a few tricks in mind for those. Powering down his guns, he tried to look as harmless as he could while the halflings maneuvered into a position to board. The halflings either weren¡¯t fooled or were taking no chances and sent a railgun round into the second main battery, disabling the laser. He also began to distribute his forces to do the most damage and delay the enemy for the longest time possible. Every minute that they could delay the boarders, meant more time for reinforcements to be fabricated. While he worked, Watkins finally read the messages in his core interface that he had put off looking at. They flashed by quickly, but the last one caught his attention. You have engaged in combat and disabled a hostile vessel. 25 core points have been awarded. You have disabled the weapons on a hostile station. 10 core points have been awarded. Your MOBS have boarded a hostile station and engaged in combat with the defenders. 25 core points have been awarded. You have destroyed an enemy vessel in combat. 25 core points have been awarded. Your core is now ready to upgrade to Level 1. ¡°Lani, my core¡¯s ready to upgrade, any idea how long that will take. Is it something I should attempt before we¡¯re boarded?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°It should be about ten minutes per level, and yes, you should do so immediately. If you advance to level one, you¡¯ll become more powerful and improve your command limit,¡± Lani said. Looking at the Halfling ship closing in on him, Watkins estimated it would take them around fifteen minutes to get into position to board, that was if he continued to try and hamper their movements as much as he could with limited propulsion. Programming in some pre-planed evasion routes so he wouldn¡¯t stop maneuvering while upgrading his core, Watkins also issued orders to his drones, having them work on the defensive upgrades he wanted, as well as a bit of subterfuge. With that handled, Watkins focussed inward. It was like closing his eyes as his vision of the ship dimmed and something called out to him. There, the call was coming from a glowing orb appeared in front of Watkins. Somehow, he knew this was his core. He could see it roil with energy as it powered his mind and his vessel. Small green threads of a different sort of power ran through the core, and after concentrating on one, he realized that these were his autonomous systems in action. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. His other energy appeared as an orange, almost liquid, light. This main portion of his energy had occasional small eruptions from the surface of his core, like solar flares on the sun. It was telling him that he was ready to expand if he wished to harness the unruly power. Watkins wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do, but at least part of the process must have been instinctual. Watkins found that he could manipulate his core directly, it was similar to the process he had used to exert control over the ship. He focussed on the boundaries of his core and began to stretch them outwards. It was hard to do at first, and a bit painful, the ache it generated reminded him of a pulled muscle from his human body. Bit by bit, the borders of his core expanded. It wasn¡¯t much, as far as distance went, but he could tell that there was more going on beneath his vision. His energy wasn¡¯t just expanding its, it was also being refined and improved. He was going to be more powerful, not just because of a larger core, but also because the energy in his core was more potent. Watkins did fumble a bit as a concern hit him. What would happen when he needed to level and the housing his core was placed in wasn¡¯t large enough to accommodate his new body? No, he would worry about that when the time came, for now, he pushed his concerns aside and finished the task in front of him. When the core expanded to its new dimensions, Watkins felt a wave of relief hit him, it was like loosening your belt another notch after a big holiday meal. With the core expansion was complete, and his focus returned to the ship around him. His sensors revealed that the halfling ship was on its final approach, and he was out of tricks to maneuver away from it. A quick check of his status, and Watkins was happy to find that Lani was right, and he now had additional command limit points waiting for him to use. He ordered up as many halfling MOBS as he could, watching the slow process of the fabricator as it did its job. Vessel Class: Gunboat. Vessel Name: Canon. Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins. Hull Durability: 89%. Core Processing Power: 100%. Core Durability: 100%. Core Level: 1. Core Points 105/250. Command Limit: 30/40.
  1. Simple repair drone, Level 1 (12).
  2. Halfling Shipmate, Level 1 (18).
He would be able to build ten more MOBS. All of them wouldn¡¯t be complete before his ship was boarded, but it allowed him to enact his defensive plan. The drones had been working while had been upgrading his core. A few changes were easy for Watkins to spot, the hatches on the starboard side that led to the fabrication and reprocessor compartments were sealed over and it just looked like a normal passageway. He planned to make a stand in the training compartment, which would hopefully keep the enemy as far from his core as he could manage. A team of three drones were just now beginning to build the defenses there, which consisted of three lines of barricades. For now, there would be no defenders there, and these defenses, as they were being built, would be manned by the new MOBS coming off the assembly line. Of his existing eighteen MOBS, twelve of them were defending the shuttle bay which was where the enemy would gain access to his ship. The next three were behind a barricade in front of the hatchway leading to the training compartment. All the laser pistols that he¡¯d taken in the fight with the kobolds were given to these defenders. It would grant his troops a bit more initial firepower and, hopefully, allow them to stall the attackers for longer. For Watkins¡¯ final two minions, he planned to use them in a surprise attack. They were both hidden in the galley compartment at the far aft of the ship. When the enemy was about to overwhelm the defenders at the training room barricade, he¡¯d have the final two defenders emerge and engage the enemy from behind. They¡¯d empty their laser weapons then duck back into the galley where a drone was preparing a small barricade for them to use. If the halfling invaders didn¡¯t want the pair of MOBS to keep popping out and sniping at them from behind, they were going to have to expend time and effort to root them out. All of this, and a few tweaks to his barricades that he hadn¡¯t tested yet, were going to grind down the enemy numbers and allow Watkins time to rebuild his forces. With the hatches from the fabricator and reprocessor compartments being disguised, he could use those as a hidden avenue of attack. There was the potential to have a much larger force pop out and catch the enemy between them and the defenders in the training compartment. A lot of this was going to depend on how the enemy reacted, and on how well equipped and trained they were. A dull clang sounded through the ship as the halfling vessel latched onto the cargo hatch. Watkins could feel their ship connect to his as the halflings tried to hack the cargo door and force it to open. This was an opportunity for Watkins. He let their hacker make some progress, but blocked them at critical times, delaying them enough to annoy them, but not enough to force them to take more drastic measures, like blasting through his hull. A check on the training compartment revealed that he had two newly minted MOBS were standing guard there and a third was just waiting on its gear to be fabricated. He had delayed all he could, and now it was time for his MOBS to do their part. Chapter 45. Spiked Barricade. Chapter 45. Spiked Barricade. Watkins could sense that the hacker trying to access the hatch in his shuttle bay was getting frustrated. The hacker was trying to barrage Watkins with various strategies, each of which he could easily thwart. Completely stopping the hack into his shuttle bay wasn¡¯t the goal, the goal was to stall and delay. A look over the forces in the shuttle bay told Wakins it was time to open the spigot on enemy attackers. Red warning lights began to flash in the shuttle bay as the hatch slowly opened. Watkins wasn¡¯t quite done yet and stopped it after it had only opened a few feet. That delay was only for two minutes as the hacker tried and was eventually allowed by Watkins to override the controls again. That one small delay meant another defender inside the training compartment. He now had five in there, and five more available command points to use. The available points would sadly increase as he began to take casualties. Both he and Lani knew little about the halfling ship, and he only estimate how many enemies were aboard it. He could deduce the number would be higher than the kobold ships he¡¯d engaged, as the halfling ship attached to him was larger than both the Canon and the converted freighters the kobolds were using. A shrill howling was heard as the hatch fully opened. Watkins had expected a fight similar to what he experienced with the kobolds, but this time, there was no barrage of grenades leading the way. Instead, a veritable swarm of halflings charged in, howling and gnashing their teeth as they boarded Canon. Watkins ordered his MOBS to engage and the first volley of plasma bolts from the defenders in the cargo hold lashed out. The halfling attack ground to a sudden halt, not because of the fire they had taken, which resulted in eight dead or wounded attackers. Instead, the halflings halted as the realized the defenders weren¡¯t kobolds or some other species, they were also halflings. For a moment, Watkins thought there might be some way to work out a deal if they figured his ship was one of theirs, and had his troops hold their fire. Watkins used the pause to get a better look at these halflings. Like his MOBS and the kobolds, they were all fitted with shipsuits but lacked any additional armor. As far as ranged weapons, each held a pistol of some sort in one hand, and a melee weapon in the other. Large knives that reminded Watkins of a butcher knife were the most common, though several of the halflings held what looked like meat cleavers. Unlike his MOBS, these halflings were filthy, though their shipsuits looked to have been in good repair. Dried gore covered their mouths, giving them a fearsome appearance, and their hands, along with the melee weapons they were holding, also held a disgusting level of dried remains on them. To his horror, Watkins realized that not all the weapons held dried gore, and more than a few knives and cleavers dripped with fresh blood. Instead of opening negotiations, the crowd of halfling attackers that were stacking up just inside his shuttle bay suddenly dropped their weapons and charged forward, foaming drool leaking from their oversized, tooth-filled maws. The MOBS immediately responded, firing the second charge of their plasma rifles then drawing their pistols to continue laying down fire on the horde. ¡°That wasn¡¯t what I expected,¡± Watkins said. ¡°Indeed, it seems that the sight of their supposed kin has worked them into a berserker rage of some sort. The lead ranks have lost their minds and even dropped their weapons,¡± Lani pointed out. Far more halflings were pouring aboard than Watkins had expected. His MOBS were firing their pistols as fast as they could, but even with five shots in each weapon, it seemed like the tide of enemies was being barely whittled down. With the last shots fired, the MOBS drew melee weapons and waited for the enemy to close. The barricades should have stalled them, but the halflings didn¡¯t try to go around them. Instead, they leaped over the shoulder height barrier and onto the startled defenders. Unfeeling of any pain, his defending MOBS didn¡¯t stop trying to deal as much damage as they could, lasing out with their melee weapons or even biting with their own formidable set of teeth. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Now that¡¯s just wrong,¡± Watkins said with disgust as the halfling attackers swarmed and held down his MOBS. Instead of a fatal blow, the halflings holding down the MOBS began to feast. Their oversized and shark tooth filled mouths sliced through the shipsuits to tear large gobbets of flesh from his MOBS. ¡°At least our crew didn¡¯t do too badly, despite their grisly end,¡± Watkins commented as they looked at the aftermath of the fight inside the shuttle bay. His MOBS had taken down the enemy at better than three to one, but the flood of attackers continued. Around fifty of them were inside the shuttle bay, though half of those were still more intent eating his MOBS than pressing the attack. ¡°I¡¯m beginning to realize why the kobolds detonated their ship rather than be captured by the halflings,¡± Lani said, reminding Watkins of the space battle they had witnessed not that long ago. ¡°We¡¯ll be doing nothing of the sort, and its time for me to get more actively involved,¡± Watkins said as the flow of enemy troops into the shuttle bay finally began to abate, there were close to seventy halflings aboard, and most were content to join in the feast. Those that had eaten their fill picked up any dropped weapons and waited for orders. Watkins ordered the six barricades in the room to slowly retract into the deck. There was the chance that an enemy could be pinched between the barricade and the deck, but the halflings were carful enough to avoid that. Once retracted, Watkins waited for the horde to disperse, their sheer numbers forcing several halflings to stand over the retracted barricades. At his command, the recent modifications that he¡¯d had his drones install went to work. One the surface of the barricade, several metal spikes extended. These only caught the feet of two halflings, but what happened next was more successful. Each barricade slammed back into place, the spikes impaling several of the halflings that had stood too closely. A total of eight halflings had been killed or seriously wounded by the surprise trap, and every easy kill he could make with a barricade would relieve the pressure on the rest of his MOBS. As the barricades retracted into the floor once again, Watkins noticed the halflings gave them wide berth. Several howls sounded from the pack of halflings, and they began to charge out of the shuttle bay and into the main passageway. The trio of defenders at the bow end of the passageway began to fire, drawing the attention of most of the horde. Unlike the wide-open shuttle bay, the passageway was a tighter fit and his barricades would keep any enemy from flanking them. To prevent the enemy leaping directly onto his troops, Watkins had the defenders move several steps back from the barricade itself. Since the attackers already knew about them, Watkins also had the spikes extend on the barricade. If they wanted to press in close, they would push their fellow halflings positioned at the front of the pack into the waiting spikes. Rifles empty, his trio of defenders were peppering the charging halflings with their pistols. These three had the last of the laser pistols that they had taken from the kobolds. Once these defenders were overrun, his MOBS would only have the more primitive single-shot plasma pistols that his core had researched. This time, the lead halflings fired as they charged the barricade. They were shooting from the hip and not taking careful aim, but with so many shots flying out, one of his MOBS took a headshot and collapsed in a heap. His troops, though much fewer in number, were much more accurate, and each shot into the crowded passageway resulted in a hit. It was almost impossible to miss given the press of bodies charging toward them. Watkins now ordered the pair of MOBS hiding in the galley to attack. They peered around the open galley hatch and began to fire into the few stragglers that were moving to inspect the open compartments that seemed undefended. With one standing and the other kneeling, his MOBS were both able to engage the foe without exposing much of their bodies to the inevitable reaction to their attack. The two MOBS in the galley only had a total of three shots, two from their rifles, and one from their pistols. After emptying their weapons, a half dozen invaders charged them, with a few more from the main pack peeling off to join in the fun. There wasn¡¯t going to be enough time for their plasma weapons to recharge, but the narrow hatchway should hamper the attackers and prevent his defenders from being swarmed too quickly. It was too bad that he didn¡¯t have enough time to install a few more of the spiked barricades in the main passageway, they could have done a number on the charging attackers. Back toward the bow of the ship, the two surviving defenders struggled against several halflings that had scampered over the top of the barricade. Watkins ordered the barricades to retrack quickly, then slam open again, causing the bulk of the enemy pack to pause, and catching one hapless invader on the spikes. Watkins was running out of defenders, and though the training room was now filled with a total of nine MOBS, the production wasn¡¯t keeping up with his losses. These halflings were pressing the attack more aggressively than he expected. To make matters worse, several new figures appeared in the shuttle bay, it looked like his foes were bringing reinforcements aboard. Chapter 46. Casualties. Chapter 46. Casualties. ¡°What are those things?¡± Watkins asked as they watched a fresh team of humanoids enter the shuttle bay from the halfling ship. ¡°Prisoners of some sort, I¡¯m not familiar with the species. Chalk it up to yet another thing that we¡¯ll have to wait to find out about once our database is fully restored. It does appear that our halfling attackers are keen on retaining the fallen, both ours and theirs,¡± Lani said. ¡°Whoever, or whatever, these prisoners are, the halflings aren¡¯t taking any chances with them,¡± Watkins said as he counted around twenty of the new humanoids, and a half dozen armed halfling guards. The new humanoids were scrawny, and just a bit taller than the halfling guards. With long muzzles, scraggly fur covering their bodies, and teeth that resembled a rat, they weren¡¯t the most appealing to look at. ¡°They look half-starved, and terrified of their captors,¡± Lani said as the rat-like humanoids began to collect the fallen and carry them back to the halfling ship. Clanging at the hatch between the passageway and the training compartment returned his attention to the threat at hand. The trio of defenders at the barricade were all down, and the halflings there were trying to force open the hatch leading to the training center. So far, the halflings were going about it in a foolish manner, no amount of pounding with fists or pistol butts was going to force the hatch open. The press of attackers there left them little room to stand back and consider their options. With the path forward blocked, more of the horde shifted their attention to the open compartments on the port side of the ship. He was glad to see that the halflings didn¡¯t suspect the presence of any of the hatches he had tasked his drones with concealing earlier. The two MOBS at the entrance to the galley were holding their own, but it was only a matter of time before the increasing numbers of halflings trying to get at them through the hatchway took them down. His defenders in the galley had already killed three of the attackers in melee, and several other halflings were nursing wounds. While the halflings tried to figure out how to break into the hatchway leading to the training center, Watkins used the time to get a better count of what he was up against. They had inflicted horrendous casualties on the halflings, but there were still 51 of them aboard his ship. Replacements for Watkins¡¯ losses were still arriving, and his training compartment now had eleven defenders ready to fight, with the twelfth walking its way there from the fabrication compartment. The defenses in the oversized compartment consisted of three rows of barricades, each row capable of holding eight or so defenders without them getting too crowded. Watkins had been distributing the defenders among the three rows of barricades, and a half-dozen drones were also in the compartment, installing new barricade panels as traps. One in particular was placed directly in front of the hatch. It was positioned to slam into the lead attackers, impaling them on the retractable spikes. Any foe entering the compartment would have to time their entrance well or risk getting swatted down by the barricade. ¡°There go the last of the defenders in the galley,¡± Lani lamented. The pair of MOBS stationed there had done an excellent job. Both had emptied their rifles and pistols into the horde of attackers, and after slaying several with weapon fire, they had killed four others in melee. Even better, they helped to delay the horde, which bought Watkins more time to manufacture reinforcements. A pair of halflings caught his eye, they ran from the hatch blocking the training center and back onto their ship. The runners soon returned pushing a cart loaded with some serious-looking tools. Given their proclivity for boarding operations, Watkins suspected the halflings had kept the means to breach secured hatches nearby when on the attack. It took the invaders only a couple of minutes to fire up a pair of cutting torches and pass out several prybars to those waiting to resume the slaughter. By the time the first torch cut through the armored hatch, Watkins had fourteen defenders in the training compartment. At this point, he cut off further reinforcements at this location, instead having his newly created MOBS remain in the fabrication compartment, ready to pop out the hidden hatchway and launch a counterattack. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°They¡¯re almost through,¡± Lani announced. The halflings had cut around the spot where the hinges for the hatch were placed and they now had teams trying to pry open the hatch. With a metallic creaking sound, the hatch was slowly bent back, finally popping clear and clanging to the deck. A pair of pre-positioned drones went to work, hauling the fallen hatch out of the way of the barricade trap he¡¯d prepared. The first two halfling leaped over the hatchway, intent on using their prybars as weapons. Before they could be gunned down by the defending MOBS, the barricade trap snapped forward, impaling both before retracting back into the deck. As the trap retracted, the rest of the halflings spilled inside. Initial shots from the defenders lanced into the lead halflings, who returned fire with their pistols and tried to close the distance with the first rank of defenders. Watkins had ordered the first rank of defenders to empty all their weapons into the attackers, then stand by with melee weapons. The defenders in the second and third row were to wait until the first rank were done firing, then they were to take turns to keep up a steady, withering fire on any of the attackers trying to enter through the hatchway. Watkins had positioned six defenders at the first barricade and four each at the second and third. The press of attackers at the hatchway allowed his trap to activate a second time, catching one of the halflings jumping over the threshold and causing the others to pause their attacks until the barricade trap retracted into the deck once more. This short pause allowed his defenders in the rear two lines of defense to thin out the attackers, giving his defenders at the first line of defense a numerical advantage over the few halflings that managed to reach their position. When the flood of attackers resumed, Watkins ordered the defenders in the first line to retreat to the second. He also retracted the first line of barricades, leaving the threat of their reactivation as an encouragement to stall the enemy advance. The next phase of his defense began in earnest. In between printing up new MOBS earlier in the fight, Watkins had ordered the fabricator to print extra rifles. Behind the second line of defense a fresh batch of rifles waited, enough for all the defenders that manned that position. It had slowed the production time of new MOBS, and Watkins still wasn¡¯t sure which was more efficient, taking time to make extra weapons, or using that time to manufacture reinforcements. This fight was going to be a test of the two options. Disciplined firing resumed, and having his core able to issue firing orders directly to his MOBS allowed Watkins to maximize the effect of his barrage. The halfling attack stalled, but there were only two MOBS ready to counterattack in the fabrication room. He needed more before he would be comfortable with revealing the fake bulkhead and allowing another entry point into his critical compartments. There was now a stalemate, the halflings had given up on rushing the defenders, and instead were content to pile up around the breached hatchway and exchange shots with the MOBS. While the halflings weren¡¯t any more accurate than Watkins¡¯ MOBS, they did have the advantage of laser pistols similar to the ones that the kobolds had been using. That gave his foes five shots stored in their magazines, and Watkins¡¯ troops had to wait an agonizing minute for a shot in their rifles or pistols to recharge. There was more activity back in the shuttle bay. The rat-like slaves were still working on clearing out the fallen, but a few of them were being led deeper into the ship. A single guard accompanied this trio of workers, and the guard pointed toward the fallen halflings littering the passageway and hanging out of the galley hatch. One of the workers, who was nursing a wounded hand with half his fingers severed off, sniffed loudly as he collected the fallen in the passageway. Strong, the rat-like slave of the halflings hauled two corpses over his shoulder, but paused on his return to sniff the hidden hatch leading to the fabrication compartment. From his actions, Watkins was sure the creature had sensed the MOBS waiting on the other side. Instead of informing his guard, the rat-like creature grinned menacingly and continued about his task. ¡°It looks like the rat guy isn¡¯t going to, uh well, rat us out,¡± Watkins said awkwardly. ¡°That was bad, and you made fun of my sense of humor earlier,¡± Lani replied with a groan. ¡°At least we¡¯re holding the enemy back,¡± Watkins said. Inside the training compartment, he had only lost two defenders so far, and a quick count of the fallen enemies in and around the compartment showed that they¡¯d killed eleven of their foes. The odds were a bit more even in the sniping war that the fight had devolved into. His minions had better cover, but the halflings had the firepower advantage. They were trading casualties in equal numbers now, which the halflings seemed excited about. The casualties mounted, but his were slowly being replaced. Five MOBS stood ready to counterattack now, and a sixth was just about done with production. That injured rat guy returned, picking up more of the fallen near the galley, and chuckling as he passed the hidden hatch. It must have been the defenders he smelled, as the prisoner gave no indication that he knew about the other hidden hatch further toward the bow that led to the reprocessor compartment. ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll have to figure out how we want to deal with these rat people once we win this fight,¡± Watkins said. Were these slave-like captives potential allies, or another threat he was going to have to deal with? Chapter 47. Grinding Down the Foe. Chapter 47. Grinding Down the Foe. ¡°The rat people aren¡¯t the concern now, timing our counterattack is,¡± Lani said, bringing Watson¡¯s focus back to the ongoing battle. His sixth MOBS unit was now gathered in the fabrication compartment, and the seventh was about halfway through production. His defenders in the training compartment were down to eight, but they had also whittled down some of the attacking halflings. Watkins gave the remaining attackers a quick count. There were 39 remaining, and that didn¡¯t count the halflings guarding the rat people that were still gathering up the corpses. So far, the halfling guards watching over the harvesting of fallen bodies seemed to ignore the boarding action and were focussed on their task of managing the efforts of the scraggly rat people. Another pair of defenders in the fabrication compartment fell, and the halflings looked like they were finally ready to make a push. Watkins was left with only six defenders in there, but he ordered his troops to gather the weapons of the fallen, which gave these last defenders a chance to fire uninterrupted save for the need to switch out an empty weapon with a charged one. ¡°I think we need to begin the counterattack now. After our counterattack commences, we¡¯ll start to divide the reinforcements, alternating them between the training compartment and the counterattack force,¡± Watkins said. He gave the order for his drones to drop the false wall, and the MOBS in the counterattack force, now numbering seven, to charge out of the hatchway. The counterattacking troops ran into the main passageway, ignoring the invaders as they all took positions behind the hatches left open to all the compartments on the port side of the ship. One remained inside the fabrication compartment and took up a firing position there. Watkins also had the two drones that had dropped the false wall position themselves over the fabrication compartment hatchway, ready to attack if any halflings pushed past Watkins¡¯ troops. In the passageway was a single halfling guard, that his MOBS shot down before it could react. The injured rat man and another of his kin stood there in terror at the appearance of the MOBS. Watkins ordered one of his MOBS to wave the pair of rat people inside the galley. They seemed to understand the simple hand motions and were content to get out of the line of fire and into the relative safety of the compartment. If they decided to cause trouble, Watkins could always lock them in and trap them inside the galley. Without tools or weapons, the rat people would be unable to do anything to escape. Given their rather emaciated condition, Watkins wondered if they would even want to escape the galley, which he powered up for them. The pair of rat people seemed shocked when the food and drink fabricator hummed to life, and Watkins ordered it create a small variety if dishes. He had left six bricks of biomass loaded inside the galley fabricator, and that would be more than enough to feed a whole crew, and more than sufficient for a pair of half-starved prisoners. As the first dish appeared, any thoughts of escape were forgotten as the pair dug into the hamburger and French fries that Watkins had chosen as the meal. After all, could he really trust anyone who didn¡¯t like a hamburger and fries? The fight in the passageway was going strong as Watkins safely sealed the rat people in the galley. His counterattacking troops had achieved the surprise that he had hoped for and had gunned down at least ten of the attackers. The enemy had piled up at the hatchway leading into the training compartment, making them easy targets. The others had finally gotten their act together and were returning fire while several tried to rush his defenders. With weapons now running dry, Watkins¡¯ troops had to engage in melee. Having the partial cover of the hatchways helped to protect his MOBS from the pistol fire of the halflings, and once they closed into melee range, his troops proved a match for the enemy. The attackers were more skilled than his level one MOBS, but Watkins¡¯ MOBS didn¡¯t feel pain or fear, ignoring deadly wounds to dish them out in return. In addition, Watkins¡¯ troops had some armor attached to their shipsuits, which was pretty much useless against the lasers, but did a decent job to protect them against melee weapons. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. His remaining troops inside the training center also stepped up their rate of fire, their numbers bolstered by a fresh replacement. They picked off a pair of distracted halflings before the others all pulled back behind the hatchway. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to do some damage, Watkins ordered the MOBS in the training compartment to go on the attack, charging the hatchway. One by one, his counterattacking troops were being taken down, but they were also killing invaders as they fell. Lani provided him with a fresh count of the enemy, they were now down to only 21 halflings, but Watkins only had three MOBS still alive from the counter attacking force. There were five in the training compartment, and they were tearing into the shocked halflings there that hadn¡¯t expected them to suddenly become the aggressors. Any fresh reinforcements were ordered to take up defensive positions both in the training compartment, and at the hatchway to the fabrication compartment. His MOBS that had positioned themselves in the CIC and Research Lab compartments were hacked down by the invaders, but they, in turn, killed a halfling each. Now, Watkins only had two defenders protecting the hatch leading to the fabrication compartment, but one of those had just arrived with loaded weapons. He ordered his troops counterattacking from the training compartment to fall back to the final barricade. All but two had been killed, but another replacement was already behind the barricade to provide them cover as they fell back. In the shuttle bay, the surviving halfling guards herded the other rat people back aboard their ship, two of them taking up defensive positions at their end of the boarding tube. Watkins¡¯ vision didn¡¯t extend too far past the boarding tube, but he was able see that the halflings had erected their own defensive barricade, which the two guards left behind to defend, were hiding behind. The other attackers, now down to 15 in total, were mostly still positioned at the training compartment hatch. Four had taken up position to hold off Watkins¡¯ troops defending the fabrication compartment, but they weren¡¯t trying to press their attack at this time. ¡°They¡¯re stalled out, I¡¯m happy to say,¡± Watkins said as he watched the stalemate unfold. ¡°Let¡¯s hope it stays that way for a while,¡± Lani said, as they both watched the next MOBS slow production journey down the fabrication machine. Both sides were content to take pot shots at each other, though Watkins could see the halflings were becoming more agitated each time a new defender moved into position. Even with the occasional MOBS being picked off, Watkins numbers were growing and there didn¡¯t seem to be any additional troops coming aboard to reinforce the enemy. Their numbers dropped to ten, and Watkins¡¯ had climbed to twelve, when the enemy made a final, desperate attack. They all funneled toward the open, yet well defended hatchway to the fabrication compartment, not wanting to face both the defenders and the barricade traps that waited for them in the training area. One by one, the enemy were gunned down, but Watkins¡¯ troops had their weapons run dry before half the enemy were killed. A brutal melee battle occurred just inside the fabrication compartment, and he even had to call in a few drones to reinforce his troops before the last foe was killed. Quiet resumed in the ship, with the only sounds being his troops carefully checking to make sure the enemy were all dead. He also had them gather up the halfling laser pistols, which were the same design as the ones he¡¯d liberated from the kobolds aboard the station. Each of his MOBS, once his numbers were fully restored, would have a rifle, one of the five-shot laser pistols, and a melee weapon. With the enemy cleared from his ship, Watkins¡¯ drones got to work, hauling away the dead for reprocessing, and gathering any weapons from the fallen. With so many casualties on both sides, Watkins didn¡¯t have to waste the fabricators time printing up new gear, and he could just concentrate on replacing his MOBS and the few drones that had fallen. He wanted to send some drones out to begin repairs on the exterior of his ship, but for now, the only access point was through the shuttle bay which was plugged up with the boarding tube. Another entry point for his drones was needed, and he found that there was no additional research needed for his drones to create a simple airlock leading from the engine compartment out onto the deck. It was small, only big enough for his drones to pass through, which would help prevent its detection and limit access for anyone that did manage to spot it. It would take time for the drones to work, as he could only assign two to the task. For now, they seemed to have the time, since the halflings didn¡¯t seem keen on immediately renewing their assault. Watkins was content with a stalemate, at least until he had all his MOBS fabricated and ready for the fight. Once that happened, it would be time to make his move and take the halfling ship. Chapter 48. Skitterbach. Chapter 48. Skitterbach. The halfling ship didn¡¯t make any move to disconnect the boarding tube, which was fine with Watkins. He was going to use it for its intended purpose once the last of his replacement MOBS were printed up. The fallen, both his, and the invaders, were supplementing the biomass and salvage he was forced to expend in rebuilding his force. While the work teams of rat people had cleared out most of the fallen in the shuttle bay, there was still plenty to gather for the team of three drones he placed on that task. Once he was up to ten MOBS, Watkins reset the barricades in the shuttle bay, having his troops take position behind them. Once they spotted Watkins¡¯ forces, the pair of halflings left to defend their end of the boarding tube ducked completely behind their defenses, unwilling to engage in sniping with his forces. There was likely a camera or sensor that would detect when Watkins tried to attack, and that meant he had additional work for his drones to do once the attack began. When his troops grabbed a foothold on the halfling ship, he needed the drones to sweep for any self destruct mechanism or other failsafe methods the halflings might have cooked up. It would be bad news if the boarding hatch suddenly detached after he started using it in earnest. ¡°Lani, what should we do with these two rats eating us out of house and home in the galley?¡± Watkins asked, wanting her input on the strange situation they found themselves in. He had some time now to deal with it before his troops were up to full strength. ¡°We should at least try to communicate with them and maybe find out where they were taken from and how many of their kind are aboard the halfling ship. They could also be of great help with knowing the layout of the enemy vessel and a count of how many crew the halflings have aboard,¡± Lani offered. ¡°Do you think they¡¯re intelligent enough to communicate? They seem kind of primitive,¡± Watkins asked. Dressed in rags and thoroughly abused from their captivity, the rat people seemed more like beasts than humans to Watkins. Still, the galaxy he found himself in seemed to house stranger things than rat people who were intelligent. ¡°If they are intelligent enough to communicate, they likely know galactic common. Maybe send a drone in there and use it to communicate with them?¡± Lani suggested. Watkins did know that most spacefaring species seemed to have a common language they used with varying degrees of skill. ¡°That¡¯s the plan, we¡¯ll go with a drone, I doubt sending one of our halfling MOBS would be a good idea considering the treatment they¡¯ve gotten from their existing captors,¡± Watkins said. He ordered one of his drones to enter through the small access hatch that all his compartments had. It was likely too small for the things in his galley to use to escape, and the smaller drone might not cause as much of a commotion. For the galley, the access hatch was built into the lower portion of the actual hatch. When the assigned drone activated the hatch and scuttled inside the galley, the two rat people ran to the far corner of the room, hissing and baring their fangs at the unknown mechanical intruder. After sealing the hatch, Watkins used the drone to project his voice into the compartment. He could have probably done that without the drone, but having a physical focal point for the others to concentrate on might be a better option than just a disembodied voice coming from the walls. ¡°I take it you¡¯ve had enough to eat; can you tell me who you are?¡± Watkins asked in the galactic common language. At least that was one bit of data that had been installed and survived inside his memory. The pair seemed to be moving around well enough. Watkins had feared they would overeat and harm themselves, but the two seemed to handle the sudden influx of calories without any ill effect. He repeated his request, watching as the two rat people looked in shock at the drone. Watkins feared they were mindless beasts, but after a moment, the rat with the severed hand seemed to gather his courage enough to respond. ¡°Who you? I know you not machine thing. You not one of the hungry ones. What are you?¡± the rat man asked. His voice and speech pattern were odd. There was a bit of a screeching lisp to his words but was he was easy enough to understand. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I¡¯m Captain Watkins, the commander of this vessel, what is your name?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°I Skitterbach. Why you feed us? Do you want us fat and happy before you feast upon us?¡± Skitterbach asked, clearly expecting the same treatment his people were probably receiving from their current captors. ¡°No, we¡¯re not planning to use you for rations. In fact, we¡¯ll keep anyone else from feeding on you if you help me,¡± Watkins offered. The second rat seemed to recover his senses at the mention of food, and he looked up at the one-handed rat, who was obviously the one in charge of the duo. ¡°Why you help Skitterbach? Why you help verminkin? I see-smell hungry ones on your crew too, they will eat-consume the verminkin even if you¡¯re in charge. They not like to eat-consume rations, not when fresh meat is alive and ready for them,¡± Skitterbach said. Watkins considered his reply, not wanting to give too much away just yet, but wanting the rat people, who he now knew were called verminkin, to know the threat of being eaten was over. ¡°Those are merely part of my crew, servants that do exactly as I say. They will not harm you unless you attempt to harm them, my ship, or any of my other crew,¡± Watkins said, adding ¡°other crew¡± to the mix in case he wanted to print up some kobolds to interact with the verminkin. ¡°We¡¯ll see-watch if that true. Nobody control hungry ones, at least not for long. What is it you want from Skitterbach?¡± the verminkin asked. ¡°I¡¯m about to board the halfling ship, and I want information about what I¡¯ll find there,¡± Watkins said. He noted that the twelfth MOBS had just finished production, and it wouldn¡¯t be long before he was ready to strike. ¡°Skitterbach knows much. Hungry ones think they beat-hurt him into submission, but Skitterbach watch-waits with eyes open. If you want what Skitterbach know-sees, what can you give-trade in return?¡± Skitterbach asked. Perhaps there was some kind of deal to be made here, it would all hinge on what the verminkin wanted in return for the information they had. ¡°What do you think I can offer that would warrant your assistance?¡± Watkins asked. Skitterbach went silent for a moment, rubbing the long hair at the end of his chin with his one hand. ¡°We want-need to stop being livestock. We want-need food,¡± Skitterbach said, pointing at the food fabricator and the remains of the feast the two had recently enjoyed. ¡°Food, and not to become food is a reasonable enough request, but tell me, Skitterbach, if you could have anything for yourself, for your people, what would it be? Do you want to return to your world? Are you looking for revenge on the halflings?¡± Watkins asked. Not eating them, and providing them food was a given, it was what the humanity that still resided inside Watkins demanded. What he wanted to know was what else made these verminkin tick, what else beside the immediate need for safety and sustenance. If that was all they envisioned, looking for the next meal while staying out of the cooking pot themselves, they were going to be of limited use to him, and Watkins would probably just dump them somewhere safe once they gave him the lowdown on the halfling ship. ¡°You really want-desire to know what Skitterbach want-desire?¡± Skitterbach asked, looking directly at the drone as if it was Watkins himself standing there. ¡°That¡¯s what I said, Skitterbach. Tell me what you would have for your people¡¯s future,¡± Watkins replied. ¡°We want what all want-desire. We want power-strength. We want to not be weakest. We want to thrive-live without being hunted,¡± Skitterbach said with determination. ¡°What of your home? Do you wish to return there?¡± Watkins asked. ¡°Verminkin have no home. We no remember where we come from. First memory is when we hide-slink aboard kobold ships. Halflings gather-take us from ships they capture, hold us in their larder. No, our home is here,¡± Skitterbach said, gesturing toward the ship around him. ¡°Which ship doesn¡¯t matter, as long as there are good places to scurry-hide when we hunted,¡± Skitterbach said. It was as Watkins hoped. These verminkin weren¡¯t tied to any one place. They could be a perfect fit for a crew to supplement his human crew once they located them. Not only would they make the perfect addition to his crew, but Watkins could also give them the very thing they desired. ¡°Skitterbach, if you and your people help me here, you¡¯ll have a place aboard my ship, among my crew. Our ship, the Canon, is a warship like no other. Aboard here, you will have the means to fight back against those that would enslave you. I cannot guarantee you will be safe, for this is a ship of war, but I can guarantee that you¡¯ll never be defenseless again. ¡°When the halflings, kobolds, and whoever else might be out there see that your people are aboard, they will not see potential prey. Instead, they will feel fear when they realize the threat you will grow into. If you join me, Skitterbach, your people will no longer have to skulk around in the dark corners of the galaxy, they will instead help to conquer it,¡± Watkins said. Hope, greed, and fear warred for control in the eyes of Skitterbach, and Watkins waited to see which of those roiling thoughts and emotions would win the conflict inside his potential ally. The fear left, and a bit of the greed as well, what remained in the gaze that Skitterbach latched onto the drone was one of hope and determination. ¡°If you can give-deliver what you promise, Skitterbach and his people will serve-help-fight for Captain Watkins. Tell me, Captain, what do you wish-want to know about the hungry ones?¡± Skitterbach said. A thin tendril of drool hung from Skitterbach¡¯s mouth as the verminkin considered the future that might now be within his grasp. Chapter 49. Turning the Tables. Chapter 49. Turning the Tables. ¡°I think we have an agreement, Skitterbach. I¡¯ll help your people and give them a place to live and work aboard my ship, providing you with food and safety. In return, your people will help me with information on the halfling ship, and serve as my crew,¡± Watkins said, summarizing and finalizing their deal. ¡°Agreed. Skitterbach now tell-speak all he knows,¡± Skitterbach said. He proceeded, in his odd version of the common language, to outline what he knew of the halfling ship. Apparently, Skitterbach was a sort of leader to the surviving verminkin who were nothing more than a living larder for the halfling foodstuffs. Skitterbach didn¡¯t know every detail of the enemy ship, as his access was restricted in some areas, like the bridge, where slave labor wasn¡¯t likely to be needed. What he did know was going to prove to be very helpful. First off, as Watkins had suspected, there was a mechanism to explosively detach the boarding collar. While he didn¡¯t know the exact location, Watkins¡¯ drones should have little trouble finding and neutralizing it. Even now, his hatchway from the engine room was almost complete, and a team of four drones was ordered to seek out and deactivate the device. Since their ships were now connected, his drones would also move about the halfling vessel to seek out and deactivate the railgun hidden somewhere on the ship¡¯s hull. Watkins wanted that weapon in his arsenal. Skitterbach didn¡¯t have an exact count on the halfling crew, but his estimate put their total crew at just over a hundred. Given the casualties that they¡¯d taken, and the estimated size of the crew, Watkins figured there were probably less than a score of halflings remained aboard. Some would be standing guard over the verminkin, and some would undoubtedly be on the bridge, which left only a handful of defenders to resist his coming attack. The pair of halflings at the other end of the boarding tube hadn¡¯t been reinforced, and seemed reluctant to even peek their heads over the barricade to look toward Watkins¡¯s ship. His troops were finally back up to a full complement of MOBS. He held them back for the moment, giving his drones time to complete their task and locate the explosives around the boarding tube. ¡°What do you think they¡¯re waiting for? If they know you¡¯re about to attack, why don¡¯t they just blow the tube now?¡± Lani asked. ¡°If I had to guess, they¡¯re waiting to see what happens aboard our ship. Without any way to watch, they have no idea if some of their troops are still on the attack. For all they know, the forces in my cargo bay might be the last of our troops and the enemy is slowly taking the rest of the ship,¡± Watkins surmised. There was no real way to know what they were thinking, as the halflings weren¡¯t exactly a known quantity. Skitterbach could only give his opinion on their behavior and merely shrugged when asked what the halflings were up to. The verminkin had never seen the halfling crew on the losing end of an engagement, so this was new territory for him as well. At least Watkins confirmed, after reprocessing several, that the halflings lacked any kind of transponder or similar device in their shipsuits. The only technology integrated into their shipsuits was the automated deployment module for the head protection in the event of decompression. That left the enemy as blind about what was going on with Watkins¡¯ vessel as he was of theirs. Through his drone connection, he watched the four assigned to find the explosives as they crossed over the exterior of the boarding tube and onto the halfling ship, where they quickly found their target. It was simply a thick ring of a synthetic explosive, which reminded Watkins of C4 from his human world. Safe once the electrical connections that triggered the detonation were removed, Watkins had his drones harvest the explosives. He had plenty of uses for it and wanted the sample to see if it was easy enough to replicate, or if it was going to take a bit of time in the research module. ¡°Can Skitterbach, watch-join the attack? I want-need to feel a halfling die to my bite,¡± Skitterbach said in a bloodthirsty growl. Watkins didn¡¯t fully trust them yet, but with only two verminkin aboard, arming them and sending them in after his troops was a reasonable request. He¡¯d try to keep them out of danger, as he would probably need Skitterbach to get his people under control once the fighting was over. ¡°You can, I¡¯ll get you some fresh shipsuits, armor and weapons. Just hold tight for a minute as my troops clear the enemy cargo hold,¡± Watkins said, having his fabricator print up new gear for the pair of verminkin. They were close in size to the halflings, so the minor adjustments needed to fit their bodies were quick enough for Watkins to analyze and implement. From Skitterbach¡¯s description, the boarding tube led to a large cargo hold, similar in size to the shuttle bay on Watkins¡¯ ship. Inside the main cargo hold, a single passageway led to compartments consisting of the barracks for the halfling crew, engineering spaces, the armory, a mess hall, and a smaller, secondary cargo hold, which was where the verminkin were held. Their bridge was positioned near the aft of the ship, which was odd, and the bow was mostly storage and the like. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. At one time, more of the verminkin had been housed in some of the bow compartments, but it seems the halfling voyage was a long one, and they had eaten into their supply of verminkin, leaving just Skitterbach¡¯s group as living prey. Skitterbach claimed he had nineteen members of his clan that were still alive when he boarded the Canon. ¡°Ah, what have we here?¡± Watkins said as one the drones examining the exterior hull of the halfling ship discovered a damaged, and only partially retracted hatch. A peek inside by his drone revealed it was a damaged pop-up turret that housed a small railgun. He assigned a pair of drones to disassemble it and return it to the Canon so he could examine it further. There would no doubt need to be some time spent using a research module to fully replicate it, but he had found that having a sample to reprocess would speed up the research time. Watkins watched the drones take apart the turret with a small portion of his focus, and shifted the rest to the boarding hatch, where he gave the command for his troops to begin the attack. In the galley, Skitterbach and his comrade, who they didn¡¯t have the name of yet, were getting into their gear and examining the weapons Watkins had provided. They were only going to be issued a one-shot plasma pistol, and a long dagger to defend themselves with. Watkins didn¡¯t expect them to be in combat, and didn¡¯t want to give them too much firepower before he had more trust in them. ¡°That was fast,¡± Lani said as his MOBS overran the two halfling defenders guarding the boarding tube. His troops spilled into the cargo hold and broke into three teams. One team, the largest, headed toward the bridge, while another team went to secure the engine room. The final team headed directly toward the smaller cargo hold that housed the verminkin. A drone followed each of the teams, ready to open any sealed hatches they might run into. They met no resistance until they neared the bridge, where a small group of halflings charged out of the compartment and led a wild attack toward his troops. Skitterbach had warned about this, the halflings were fearless and blood crazed. It was hopefully going to work in Watkins¡¯ favor since they weren¡¯t the type to seal themselves in and delay the battle, they were far too aggressive for that. The charging halflings seemed to support Skitterbach¡¯s estimation of their overly aggressive tactics. Catching the enemy in the open, his MOBS had little trouble cutting down the five halflings that had led the assault. After those five were killed, his troops stormed onto the bridge. It was a larger sized compartment than Watkins had expected, and another four halflings waited for them inside. One wore some more elaborate body armor and wielded two laser pistols. This must have been their captain based on Skitterbach¡¯s description of him. The halfling was deadly, quickly blasting down three of Watkins¡¯ MOBS before being peppered by return fire. The halfling captain¡¯s armor was good, but it couldn¡¯t hold up to the barrage of laser and plasma blasts his MOBS unleashed. The captain was the last enemy on the bridge to fall, but by the end of the skirmish, only five of the MOBS assigned to take the bridge survived the encounter. Another deadly fight was brewing in the secondary cargo hold, which had a sealed hatch. His drone had quickly overridden the primitive security software, and the hatch swung open, revealing a horrifying scene. Four halfling guards were tearing into and biting a group of cowering verminkin. The halflings¡¯ faces were covered in gore as they tore chunks out of their victims, chewing rapidly as if they wanted to eat as much as they could before Watkins¡¯ MOBS killed them. The ghoulish halflings didn¡¯t even try to defend themselves, continuing to gorge themselves even as they were blasted with laser fire. The surviving verminkin cowered in fear, as terrified of Watkins¡¯ halfling MOBS as they were of their former captors. ¡°Skitterbach, we need you to talk to your people,¡± Watkins said as his MOBS made sure the enemy were all killed. It turned out one halfling was still alive, though paralyzed from the neck down due to a laser blast hitting its spine. Skitterbach and his companion charged into the cargo hold turned abattoir. ¡°This one lives, and it¡¯s yours to do with as you wish,¡± Watkins said through the drone assigned to this team, using it to point toward the still-living halfling. ¡°Look my people,¡± Skitterbach shouted. His appearance had drawn the attention of all the surviving verminkin. ¡°We are no longer prey; we are no longer the food-meat for the halflings. Watch as I show you our new place in this world,¡± Skitterbach then reached down and began to choke the halfling. It still tried to snap its oversized jaws at Skitterbach, but it couldn¡¯t move enough to reach him. Just before life faded from the halfling, Skitterbach¡¯s head shot forward, the jagged and misshapen teeth in his rodent-like snout dug deep into the throat of the halfling, tearing a chunk out. Instead of eating it, Skitterbach spit the flesh out in disgust. He stood from his victim, turning toward his verminkin people. ¡°I lead-command the verminkin now. Skitterbach has arranged alliance-help from Captain Watkins. Do not fear his hungry ones, they are merely servants, not the hungry-crazed things we were prisoner-slave to. Follow-obey me, and I lead you to cheeseburger-food and a new future-chance,¡± Skitterbach said. Wary and skittish, the surviving verminkin stood. A few were injured from the vicious bites of the halflings, and Watkins doubted they survive for long without treatment. He had the schematic for a med pod in his database, unlocking it when he had reprocessed the damaged device in his own med bay. He ordered four of them to be built, all that would easily fit in his rather small med bay. Every available drone was put on the task and should have them completed rather quickly. ¡°Captain Watkins, where should my people go-live?¡± Skitterbach asked. ¡°We¡¯ll bring them aboard the Canon soon. For now, do what you can for the wounded, I have a medical pod being constructed that should help keep them heal, but it will take time to construct,¡± Watkins said. ¡°No, Skitterbach not lead-guide people, Kritch will be lead-master over verminkin,¡± Skitterbach¡¯s companion said as he discharged his plasma pistol into Skitterbach¡¯s back.