by Dean Henegar
The gnomes fared a bit better than the orcs. They methodically moved out into the corridor, and as soon as they saw the kobold barricade, they hurled both of their grenades. One landed short and harmlessly exploded in front of the barricade, but the second made it over, and the resulting explosion took out three of the defenders. The remaining two popped up and fired at the approaching gnomes, who were able to advance while firing back. Gnomes made for smaller targets than orcs and were harder to hit. By the time the gnomes’ aimed fire took out the last kobold, they still had six healthy participants. The gnomes then headed cautiously toward the final confrontation in the central compartment.
The rats were anything but cautious. As soon as the hatch opened, the swarm burst forth. They scurried not only down the corridor but also along the sides of the passageway, completely unfazed by the kobolds’ fire. They ignored their losses and closed with the foe. Once near, the rats scrambled over the barricade and engaged the kobolds in melee. The kobolds answered the threat bravely, extending arm blades and fighting back against the razor-sharp teeth and metal-spiked tails of their foes. The swarm overran the kobolds, leaving all the defenders dead, along with a half dozen of their kin.
Slater was most excited to see his reapers perform. They didn’t disappoint. One of the combat drones began to fire from the hatchway, pinning down the kobolds as the others advanced on their foes. One grenade was hurled, and the aim was spot on. The blast took out three of the kobolds behind the barricade, and the other two were taken down by the heavy fire the drones’ belt-fed weapons pumped out. Two of the reapers had picked up some damage in the brief fight. One had been struck in the torso and could no longer rotate freely. To target any of the other foes, it would have to maneuver using its four legs, greatly reducing its effectiveness. Another of the combat drones was struck in a leg, the explosive round severing the limb at its midpoint. He had designed for this possibility, and the reaper missing a leg was able to hobble a bit slower on its three remaining appendages.
The reapers did have a limited self-repair function, and both damaged units would be able to fix themselves in time, but in the middle of the fight, there was no time to be wasted on repairs. The damaged units were herded toward the front of the line and sent out toward the sounds of battle in the nearby final compartment, the combat drones wisely using the already damaged units as cover when they entered the growing fight in front of them.
The orcs and rats had entered the final compartment at nearly the same time. Both of their fighting styles lent themselves to quick and decisive action. Being at least a little bit smarter than the bilge rats, the orcs took cover and fired from a distance at the fourteen remaining rats. Not letting something as silly as incoming fire stop them, the rats rushed over the various obstacles and hurled themselves toward their prey. Though they weren’t intentionally trying to use the obstacles as cover, their wild charge through them inevitably made it hard for the orcs to get a clear shot.
The gnomes saw that the two groups were focused on each other and took the opportunity to creep into nearby cover as they entered the fight. Their accurate fire began to drop both orc and bilge rat. The two damaged reapers finally made it into the compartment and began to rip out long bursts from their weapons as they tried to focus the enemy’s attention on themselves. While the damaged pair began their assault, the other reapers moved in and took cover. Some of the gnomes changed their aim to the damaged drones when the bilge rats finally made it to the orcs and a frenzied melee erupted.
The reapers began to bang out accurate fire from whatever cover they could find. The drones assessed the ongoing battle and decided the gnomes were the greater threat, expending their last grenade toward the nearest gnomish shooters. The grenade landed among two gnomes using a large metal table for cover. One was able to jump to the other side of the table, but the other was too slow and found himself blown to bits. The gnome that jumped over the table didn’t fare well, either; the movement exposed him to the fire from three reapers.
An explosion over by the orcs and rats attracted everyone’s attention. The orc with the last grenade had triggered it as three rats swarmed him. Only a single orc and four rats remained from their teams. The final orc went down while swinging his rifle at the rats cornering him. The skull of one of the rats was cracked open with a sickening crunch when the swinging rifle butt slammed into it. The other three rats took advantage of the situation and converged on the orc, tail stingers and teeth trying to find a weak spot. One tail lashed out under the orcs’ chin, its stinger easily penetrating up into his brain.
The remaining trio of rats looked about for new targets, choosing to head toward the loudest prey, which in this case meant the reapers. The reaper with only three legs had been taken apart by fire from the gnomes. Slater realized that the reapers’ thin armor shell would need reinforcing, but he already had a few ideas on how to do that without compromising their agility and speed too much. The reaper with the damaged torso was the target of the rats, who had singled out the wounded prey. With a limited ability to pivot for aiming, the combat drone was able to target only one of the rats before they closed in. A last burst of fire tore apart the targeted rat even as the remaining two attacked.
They landed on the reaper and began to gnaw away bits of metal as their stinger-tipped tails punched holes through the lightly armored casing over the torso. Teeth and tails finished off the drone even as a pair of its comrades turned the rats to pulp with accurate fire.
Only four gnomes and six reapers remained. Two of the gnomes were taken down by the more accurate fire of the reapers, who suffered only minor damage in return. His drones used their numerical superiority to advance on the gnomes, constant fire keeping the little humanoids pinned down while other drones maneuvered for a clear shot. The gnomes weren’t going to go down easily; both stood up from their cover and unleashed long bursts at the nearest reaper. Both reapers were staggered as the rounds penetrated their armor and sheared off appendages. Once the gnomes were out of cover, the remaining reapers were able to drop them with long bursts from their weapons. The reapers had won the contest and at the same time proven their effectiveness to Slater.
— 18 —
The tests had gone well and had given Slater the information he needed to further upgrade his reapers. He had several ideas on how to improve them and placed some of his processing power toward that task. The construction drones were still working away at replacing the burned-out rear section of the ship. His drones were working fast, but there were several intricate systems he needed to replace. Salvage reserves were shrinking rapidly as the repairs continued; he would need to restock soon, but if he could take over even the smallest of the gnomish space stations in the next system, it would solve his immediate salvage needs.
One final test was left to do, one he wanted to do outside the view of the human crew. Slater printed up a variety of MOBS with an emphasis on gnomish ones, as they would be his next battle targets. He had a dozen gnomes attack a single reaper drone in both melee and at range, then tested out his mana shield on the drone. Thankfully, he could project the shield onto any MOBS he controlled on his ship, which would allow them to put up a longer fight the next time he was boarded. The shield absorbed a dozen blows from melee weapons before shattering. Granted, gnomes weren’t the most powerful foe in melee, so he also tested it against some of his orc templates, who were able to break the shield after only a half dozen blows.
The shield was less effective against ranged weapons, absorbing two blasts from a laser or one of the explosive rounds used by his weapons. Grenades and other explosives cracked the shield almost instantly but did give the shielded unit some protection from the blast and shrapnel. Using the “magic” energy felt strange, and Slater could feel his grip on the magic slip as the last of it drained from him. While he could feel when the magic was flowing out of him, the feeling didn’t change as his pool dwindled. To keep track of his mana in the chaos of battle, Slater created a small mana
pool icon to display how much of the energy remained. Draining the pool completely proved to be a bad decision. When completely drained, his mana took much longer to regenerate, dropping from ten mana per second to only one. Once his pool increased to over one hundred mana, regeneration resumed at the normal pace.
Magic Blast proved great for disrupting enemy formations but didn’t do a whole lot of damage. He got some good results using it to blast enemies out of cover, and the ability did tend to stun the affected creatures. The cost was exorbitant at five hundred per blast, and he would have to use it cautiously if he didn’t want to tank his mana pool. It also seemed that the larger the targets, the less the blast would affect them. Orcish bodies took less damage and only minimal pushback compared to the smaller rats.
Mana manipulation allowed him to pull off a few dirty tricks he had thought of after considering different uses for the seemingly useless ability. He printed up a squad of gnomes in full battle rattle and focused his power on one in the middle. It took a few tries, but he was eventually able to latch the manipulation power onto a grenade and exert enough pressure to pull the pin. The resulting explosion and dismembered gnomes brought a smile to his face; he couldn’t wait to spring this trap on the next unsuspecting group of foes to board the Franklin.
To prevent another magical foe from doing the same to his troops, he developed a small retention tab to keep the grenade pins secured until they were ready for use. While he could still use his power to flick off the tab and then pull the pin, it would be hard to do both without the target noticing. Having to take an extra step before his troops could throw a grenade was a big negative, but he wasn’t willing to sacrifice the safety factor should there be another devious mage out there with the same idea.
He also wanted to test out his signal booster, and the only place to try it out was in space. A drone was attached by a cable to the hull and pushed off the ship, slowly drifting away. Slater maintained control of the drone for the entire mile-long length of cable he had crafted for the experiment. The signal was diminished at that range, but he felt he could have gone farther if needed. Researching upgrades for the device would be high on the priority scale; he had visions of drone-based fighter craft to help defend his ship. Another benefit of the signal booster was that it also extended the range of his magical abilities. He could place a shield and manipulate an object on the drone, as well as heal it, but he couldn’t target a blast anywhere other than on the drone itself. To target something other than his MOBS at that distance didn’t seem possible—at least not yet.
A surprise was that his mana pool had increased after all the practice he put in. A flurry of testing to see if he could push it further proved ineffective, and there weren’t any other bumps in his stats no matter how long he practiced. From what he had gleaned from Illissa’s gift, each upgrade became progressively harder to achieve. Initial training like he had just conducted could improve his abilities, but only the actual use of magic in stressful situations could unlock more power. His experiments complete for the moment, Slater allocated new research and reviewed his progress.
Core Upgrade Progress: 11%
Hull Integrity: 74%
Shields: 100%
Power Availability: 10%
Current Research Allocation:
Reapers: 10%
Signal Booster: 30%
Camouflage: 30%
Reactor: 10%
Sensors: 10%.
Bilge Rats: 10%
Mana: 1600/1600
Mana Regeneration: 11 mana per second
He wanted to further improve his reapers, especially as their upgrades tended to also improve the construction drones. Slater thought again about adding weapons to the repair drones, but that would dilute their ability to repair. All the mass and resources he placed into a repair drone should be focused on its primary task: repairs and construction. He also threw some research at his bilge rats, wanting to combine them with some other ideas he was working on. The signal boosters and camouflage would be key to their next steps, so he decided to expedite upgrades in those areas. Some of the work the crew had done to help with upgrades had unlocked a few easy improvements to their reactor, so he would also finish up that research. For the last bit of processing power, he started the next round of upgrades for his sensors. Heading to the gnomes’ system meant that detecting threats early was more important than ever.
“Commodore, Private Long is awake if you wanted to check on him. The new med bay did wonders for the young man,” Doctor Cheng advised. Slater was pulled from his thoughts and plans for the coming battle, turning his focus on the med bay and the now fully healed private rising from his bed. The new treatment bed was a strange and somewhat disturbing affair with its numerous robotic arms holding sharp and dangerous-looking implements. While it resembled an evil torture device, the new treatment had healed up Long in record time.
“Welcome back, Private Long. How are you feeling?” Slater asked.
“Good, sir. A little groggy, but I think I’m okay,” Long replied while touching where the various injuries had afflicted his body. “As a matter of fact, sir, I think I’m better than I was before. All my old scars are gone.”
Slater’s improved medical facility was doing better at its job than advertised.
“Good to hear. I did want to ask you about something before you get back to duty. As you know, Mr. Bitey was destroyed while saving you. Did you want me to print up another rat for you, or do you need some time to think about it?” Slater asked.
The private’s face went from all smiles to a look of depression at the mention of his dead companion. Long thought for a moment before replying. “Sir, I don’t think anything could replace Mr. Bitey, but I did kind of get used to having a pet around. Can you print me up another one when you get a chance?”
“Sure, Private. I’ve got a few upgrades for our little friends underway, but as soon as they’re done, I’ll have one printed up and linked to you,” Slater replied, happy to be able to help one of his crew.
It took another three days for the drones to finish the repairs to the main drive units. Slater had Captain Guzman take the ship toward the jump point at a modest speed. He was in no rush, and there were still a few things that needed completion before they jumped over. A couple of shield projectors and a half dozen maneuvering thrusters were still being built. Those items and a new coat of ablative armor for the freshly repaired sections would be done shortly.
During the delay, a few of his other upgrades completed. The camouflage, reactor, and bilge rats were done. With its latest upgrade, the reactor was now more powerful yet didn’t take up any extra space. It would provide all the energy the ship would need for drives, shields, and weapons with some to spare. Slater could shunt his power to the various systems if the reactor was damaged, but it would come at the cost of powering his MOBS. The new reaper drone upgrade would hopefully take care of some of that risk, but he wouldn’t know until that was complete.
With the upgraded camouflage system, his ship could deploy the various structures more quickly. Also, the hull itself could change color and reflect signals in a variety of ways, allowing the Franklin to disguise itself as any similarly sized vessel they had encountered. In fact, with the extended camo structures, he could appear as an even larger ship if needed, though it would be at the cost of maneuverability. The structures were not designed to operate under rapid changes in direction or acceleration; that was an upgrade that he would pursue in the future. For now, he was happy to sneak into the gnomish system looking like a simple six-pack mothership. He threw the freed-up processing power into the unfinished research and took a look at the new rats.
His bilge rat upgrade had taken a different path. Instead of improving upon size and combat ability, he had gone with small and stealthy. The rats incorporated some of the tech that the camo system had unlocked and were now down to the size of a normal rat. While they didn’t have any real offensive capability, the rats would be hard to see and co
uld be printed with either a signal booster or a small explosive device inside the body. The first one he printed was implanted with a signal booster and would be Private Long’s new pet. As before, he spent time linking the new Mr. Bitey to the private. He would still be in total control of the rat, but it would follow Long around and respond to his commands. In time, who knew what might happen through that bond, but for now, it should give the private a friendly companion to help with the loss of the old Mr. Bitey. All that remained was to present Long with his new friend.
“Private Long, I have someone for you to meet,” Slater said. Long and Harris were in the rec room, taking some downtime with the SAC marines they had incorporated into their force. Lieutenant Camden was also there, checking up on his now fully healed private.
“What is it, sir? Did you finish the new pet?” Long said excitedly.
“Yes, and in fact, he’s sitting right next to you,” Slater said before ordering the rat to drop its camo. The rat appeared next to Long on the couch as the camo mode shut off. Even with it off, the fur continued to blend into the background colors, giving it a strange rippling effect.
“Woah, that’s so cool, Long. What are you going to name your new rat?” Private Harris said while trying to pet the little guy. The rat responded by nipping Harris in the finger as it climbed onto Long’s shoulder. “He totally needs a cool name like Stealth or Recon with that weird fur it has.”
“No, I think I’ll call you . . . Mr. Hidey!” Long exclaimed as he picked up his new friend to get a better look. Harris and some of the marines groaned at the choice.
“Lock it up, men. It’s Long’s choice what he wants to name that thing, even if it is stupid,” Lieutenant Camden ordered.
“Just make sure that your new friend doesn’t distract you from the mission, Private,” Slater added. The newly named Mr. Hidey allowed the others to give him a pat or two; Slater had made sure that this particular rat had soft fur in addition to its other properties.
