by Dean Henegar
The doctor nodded her thanks and immediately engrossed herself in the feed, tapping out notes on her tablet device. The soldiers began to pack up their gear as they prepared to move back to the housing compartments Slater had created for them. Now was as good a time as any to ask for some of their spare gear in order to break it down for their schematics.
“Lieutenant Camden, do you have any spare equipment that I can break down? I can use anything that you won’t need to try and create upgrades for my own forces. As you witnessed during the fight, my kobold MOBS are rather poorly equipped,” Slater asked.
The lieutenant thought about it for a moment before coming to a decision. “I think we can contribute to the cause, Captain Slater. I only have a couple of backup rifles. Would one be sufficient for you to learn the pattern?” Camden asked.
“Usually that’s all I need. Make sure to drop samples of your ammo as well. It looks like you brought plenty, but I can try to make more for you when you run low,” Slater advised.
“Sir, what about one of the claymores? They always do well against orcs and the like. If Slater can print us up replacements for those, we can turn this ship into a death trap for anyone trying to take it,” Sergeant Gonzales said as he began to take the remaining claymores off the walls of the compartment and in front of the bunkers.
“Good idea, Sergeant. Leave one out for Slater, as well as a frag grenade. I know none of you has a spare armor set, but did anyone bring spare trauma plates?” the lieutenant asked.
Slater was looking at the items laid out on the deck like a kid at Christmas. Gonzales pulled an armor plate from his pack and left it next to the other items. Slater pulled a drone from the ship salvage operation to begin breaking down his new loot.
“Hey, Slater, you think you could help me out with a few items that might need replicating as well?” Private Harris asked as he pulled various snacks from his pack and laid them onto the deck.
“I’ll see what I can do, Private,” Slater told him.
“What about the dead, sir?” Private Long asked, looking at the orcs and pieces of orc strewn about the room.
“I’ll take care of that with the drones. Their bodies will have to stay for now, as getting the orc ship broken down and my own forces rebuilt is the priority,” Slater advised.
“Slater just went up another notch on my favorite-glowing-balls-that-used-to-be-people list. I always seem to get grave registry detail and body disposal after a fight,” Harris replied.
“Glowing ball thing? Private, you will address our host with the proper respect. Remember, he was a naval officer who gave his own life to destroy the enemy. He didn’t choose to be transformed, and despite all he’s been through, he’s willing to help humanity beat our enemies. Sergeant, police up the area. I’m sure Private Harris will be more than helpful,” Camden ordered.
Slater was stunned. Not long ago, Camden doubted his claims. Was he now accepting him or just trying to smooth over relations to get what he wanted?
“You heard the lieutenant. Let’s haul this gear back to our quarters. Long, just grab your personal weapon. The good Private Harris can carry everything back on his own.”
With a groan, Harris looked at the pile of crates the team had dragged in earlier. The private would have to slog all the heavy items through several compartments on his own. He would have to drop his burden, open the hatch, then lug it over the hatchway and into the next compartment, only to do it over and over again. As petty vengeance for the glowing ball comment, Slater amused himself by setting the hatches Harris had to open to the hard setting. He didn’t believe Harris was specifically being rude to him; the private just had an abrasive demeanor in general. Still, Slater needed to find fun wherever he could get it. After all, even a derelict was entitled to enjoy itself now and again, especially if his fun added to Harris’s burdens.
New schematics are unlocked.
Firearms, Level 2
Mines, Level 0
Grenades, Level 0
Ammunition, Level 1
Clothing: Body armor pattern unlocked.
Research completed for kobold, level 2; biotech implants, level 2; and ship’s propulsion, level 1.
His drone had broken the items down quickly; the upgrade to the level 2 drones was proving its worth. He was disappointed to discover that absorbing the human gear didn’t give him the ability to re-create the item exactly and would only give him the most basic schematic for level 0 crap gear or bump his existing research up one tier. Was this some restriction put in place by the council or a genuine bottleneck in a derelict’s research path? He didn’t know and wasn’t sure how to find out.
Thankfully, most of his research had completed during the battle. Construction drone level 3 research was at eighty-four percent and would be completed before too long. Before assigning new research items, he took a moment to review the results of the latest upgrades.
The propulsion upgrade was a minor one, only adding a bit more thrust to the maneuvering jets he had installed. The anticipation of being able to re-create his ship’s main drives was dashed when the initial system had been installed. The 250 salvage had only given him a small maneuvering thruster like the one the admiral’s derelict had used. His own full-sized ship thruster was taken apart to build the new tiny one his derelict now sported. Testing it out a bit, he found the thrust was minimal, but he could angle the thruster to perform simple maneuvers. He wouldn’t win any acceleration contests, but he could perhaps delay an enemy from boarding his derelict by maneuvering if it became necessary.
The MOBS upgrade for the kobold was a bit more interesting. Since it was a complete upgrade of a specific type of MOBS and not a single system upgrade like natural weapons or the blade in the arm, he would have to scrap his existing kobolds and print all new ones when he was ready. Printing all new MOBS wasn’t too bad, as he had already taken many casualties from the earlier fight and needed replacements for his losses anyway. With all the humans busy doing their thing, he took some time to print up the new kobolds and some regular ones in the testing lab. The humans might be a bit mortified over his “testing” techniques since they usually amounted to letting the MOBS kill each other to see if an upgrade was better. Thankfully, his research lab was beneath the core room and there was no access beyond the small spaces his drones moved through. Nobody other than Slater could see what was going on in there.
The level 2 kobold upgrade had turned his standard kobold MOBS into something called a kobold warrior. His new kobold warriors were a bit larger than the generic kobold and had better muscle definition. He ordered the pair of warriors to square off against their normal counterparts and begin fighting. The new upgrade was superior, but not by a huge margin. After five test runs, the kobold warriors won four out of five times, with several of the matches being close. When they were armed with ranged weapons, the results were similar. His warriors had slightly better reaction time and accuracy, but it wasn’t always enough to beat out the older version of the kobold MOBS.
Slater pulled a few drones from salvage work to begin printing up replacements for his losses, which would print out as the newest warrior variant. Once his losses were replenished, Slater would order his regular kobolds to be scrapped and replaced with warriors. His taskmaster and captain variants saw marginal improvement as well; both were stronger and more agile than before. The latest biotech implant upgrade would require him to mess around with the engineering station, something he would do later.
For new research choices, Slater picked firearms level 3 and ammunition level 2—which seemed a wise choice to research together. He wanted to get firearms research started up, as he was much more impressed with human weapons than orc lasers. He would keep the research node attached to the lab open for some experiments on his MOBS and the newest biotech implant research. He had a few plans for his bilge rats that included bio-implants to improve their performance.
Speaking of bilge rats, Slater noticed Private Long trying to corner yet anot
her rat in order to pet it. The poor guy must have a puppy or kitten at home, which might explain what was driving him to want to pet a bilge rat. Deciding to try and help out the private, Slater focused on the private’s latest victim. He could see the threads of data flowing from the nanobots and into the rat MOBS. Slater plucked a thin strand of data and willed it over to link with Private Long. It took some tweaking at the lab interface to get it to work right, but once it was done, he was able to link that particular MOBS to Private Long. Pleased with the results, Slater watched as the rat stopped trying to get away from what it had previously identified as an obstruction and allowed the private to pet it. When Long went off to clean his weapon—a task all the soldiers completed as soon as they could—the rat followed him.
“Ha, Long found a new friend. Have you named it yet?” Harris asked as he stood to catch his breath before heading out for the next crate. Slater felt a bit sorry for him now and reset the hatches back to easy mode. Harris had learned his lesson . . . so Slater hoped.
“I’m trying to decide between Mr. Bitey and Fluffy,” Private Long replied.
“Dude, look at the choppers on that thing. It totally needs to be Mr. Bitey,” Harris told his comrade.
“Okay, welcome to the army, Mr. Bitey,” Long confirmed with a friendly pat on the back. Strangely enough, the link that bound the bilge rat to the private allowed the name to stick; the rat now showed up as Mr. Bitey in Slater’s interface and even had the rank of recruit . . . whatever that meant. The mention of the army brought up a question that had been bugging Slater since the soldiers came aboard.
“Lieutenant Camden, why were army soldiers stationed on the Havock and not marines?” Slater asked. Typically, the job of protecting vessels was given to the Marine Corps.
“I suppose you would find that odd. Unfortunately, the marines were stretched too thin, given the number of warships we’re producing, not to mention the civilian vessels that require protection. All the races we fight against seem to prefer boarding and taking vessels as opposed to destroying them. Most ships carry a large complement of defenders, and even the ships’ crews are now more heavily trained at repelling boarders than you might have been used to during your time in the service. The Havock just seemed to be one of the lucky ones that got army support instead of marines. I suppose the captain wanted defenders that could read and wouldn’t eat all the crayons on board.”
“Thank you for the answer, Lieutenant Camden. I am surprised the other races would risk the destruction of their own vessels just to take a chance on boarding their foes. It’s usually a difficult proposition in space,” Slater said.
“You’re right, and we make them pay dearly for the privilege of boarding an Earth vessel. The enemy will typically target our propulsion systems and weapons first in a fight, while we focus on killing the vessel itself. That advantage has helped us in many of our battles, but who knows how long it will be before our foes adapt to our methods of fighting. Thankfully, the other races seem to be more set in their ways than humans and are very resistant to change,” Camden told him.
The breaking down of the orc vessel must have been enough to expand his core once again. Slater could feel the familiar building of pressure that signaled a level-up.
“Lieutenant, I’m afraid I’m about to go into hibernation mode for a bit as my core upgrades. I’ve set my drones to continue their work and they will slowly replace my losses. My forces are on defensive mode and will attack any hostile boarders if some should arrive,” Slater advised.
“I understand, Slater. If something happens, we’ll set up in the shooting range again, if that’s okay with you.”
“That would be great. In fact, I’ll move my MOBS out of there to reinforce the engineering space in front of that compartment. I’ll also queue up the drones to expand the bunkers to fit humans a bit better, though that will be after all their other work is completed,” Slater said as sleep began to overtake him.
“No worries, Captain Slater. We’ll keep the Franklin safe until your return,” Lieutenant Camden replied.
With the lieutenant’s assurance, Slater drifted off into the dreamlike state that awaited him as his derelict core upgraded.
— 20 —
Slater came out of his upgrade a bit concerned about what his human guests had been doing during his slumber. A quick check showed the pair of privates lounging in their mess hall, trying to teach Mr. Bitey how to play catch. Doctor Cheng was asleep in her quarters with notes and datapads strewn about. Sergeant Gonzales walked the compartments, his gaze taking everything in. Slater could almost see the gears turning in the sergeant’s head as he noted fields of fire and different spots for cover and concealment. The lieutenant was slowly eating a slice of pizza while watching the two privates’ antics. He seemed content to let them have their fun for the moment. A good officer knew when to loosen the reins on his men and when to haul them in.
With the humans not involved in sabotage or acts of mutiny, Slater examined his latest update and the new schematics he had received from the orc ship. The vessel had been much larger than the admiral’s and he had high hopes for what he might find.
Slater, Derelict Core, Level 6, Experience: 2654/5000
Core Health: 97/100
Core Power: 90/100
Biomass: 2196
Salvage: 3217
Nanobot Permeation: 100%
Compartments Controlled: 13
Research Nodes: 4
Defenses: pit traps (4), tripwire traps (3), hidden compartment traps (12)
MOBS: kobolds (29), pairs of bilge rats (18), kobold taskmaster (5), kobold captain (1)
Construction Drones: 25
MOBS Schematics:
Construction Drone, Level 2
Kobold, Level 2 (patterns include warrior, taskmaster, and captain)
Bilge Rat, Level 1
Defilers, Level 0 (patterns include defilers, eviscerator variant)
Gear Schematics:
Slashing and Piercing Melee Weapons, Level 2
Crushing Melee Weapons, Level 1
Laser Weapons, Level 2
Firearms, Level 2
Ammunition, Level 1
Grenades, Level 0
Clothing and Body Armor, Level 2
Natural Weapons, Level 1
Defensive Structures:
Pit Trap, Level 2
Tripwire Trap, Level 2
Mines, Level 0
Hidden Compartment, Level 1
Derelict Interior Schematics:
Décor and Compartment Items, Level 2
Secret Door, Level 1
Core Room Schematics:
Laboratory, Level 1
Communications Array, Level 2
Engineering Station, Level 2
Ship Systems:
Propulsion, Level 1
Research Nodes: 4
Current Research:
Laboratory node is currently available for research.
Engineering node is currently researching firearms, level 3. Progress: 12%.
Research node 1 is currently researching ammunition, level 2. Progress: 18%.
Research node 2 is currently researching drones, level 3. Progress: 91%.
New Schematics Unlocked:
Ship’s Weapons Systems: Requires a ship’s weapons interface to be added to the engineering station. The cost to build the ship’s weapons interface is 250 salvage.
Orc MOBS: Physically powerful and intimidating, orcs are known for their aggression, if not their finesse. Orcs are typically excellent in melee yet are notoriously bad shots.
Time until next jump: n/a. Core needs to be fully repaired to begin the jump sequence.
He was swimming in salvage and biomass after the orc ship had been stripped down. With the new schematics from the orc vessel and the continued improvements he was making overall, he was becoming much more powerful. So far, Slater had been thinking along the lines of what the parasite had informed him of, waiting around for ships to explore his
derelict and slowly gathering resources. Now, with the ship’s weapons research available, he could take the fight to an enemy before he was boarded. Sure, if a neutral party—essentially only the dwarves at this point—wanted to explore the derelict, he would be fine with them doing that and gathering their rewards. If another group came by to take him out, he would love to greet them with a volley of missiles and a barrage of laser cannon fire before they had a chance to board.
It was going to take a lot of research to get there, given the slow progression of his research trees. Needing to upgrade the engineering station did make logical sense; weapons that ships used were much different from the personal gear he was constructing for his MOBS. He had to assume the lab would need similar upgrades as he progressed on his MOBS research. Slater spent the necessary resources to start the weapons upgrade for the engineering station and assigned a drone to the task, curious as to what types of weapons he would unlock. With the restrictive progress of some of his other weapons research, he wouldn’t be surprised if a level 0 ship’s weapon was a wooden catapult bolted to the hull.
The firearms level 2 research was a disappointment, but one he was prepared for, given the way other research had gone. Instead of an advanced military rifle, he now had something from the end of the nineteenth century. His drones could build a single-shot rifle with a breech-loading design. The shooter would fire, then pull down a lever integrated into the trigger guard. The rifle breech would open, and the shooter could eject the spent cartridge and then feed in a new one. Finally, the shooter would close the breech, which made the weapon ready to fire once more. He would need to do some experiments to see if the new rifle was better than his current laser rifle. The only good news was that the schematic included both the rifle and a pistol version of the weapon, the consolidated research options coming through to help him at least a little bit.
Level 1 ammunition proved to be a simple brass cartridge that paired with his new rifle; no high-tech smart rounds like the soldiers used were likely to be uncovered in the immediate future. This line of research was going to be a priority, as the soldiers would need more ammo for their weapons at some point. They had brought cases and cases of gear, but the supply was finite. He had already placed new research into both items and would have to wait to see what the results would be and what direction the research would take.
