Repel Boarders

by Dean Henegar

  He moved his view over to his testing area, printing up a kobold with the old rifle and one with the newest version. The new rifle had potential. Instead of a breech-loading single-shot rifle, he now had a bolt-action rifle that had an internal five-round magazine. He had the kobold with the new rifle load five rounds of the new ammunition into his weapon. The kobold had to push each round down individually into the internal magazine, but once it was loaded, he could fire five times between reloads. A target was created for each kobold, and he had them fire off fifty rounds, one kobold using an old rifle and ammo, one kobold using a new rifle and ammo.

  The kobolds banged away at the targets, the bolt-action rifle having a much more rapid rate of fire but a longer reload time. Even though the overall rate of fire was similar between the weapons, being able to fire five rounds initially in a fight without reloading was a huge bonus in the types of battles his kobolds normally faced. The new ammunition didn’t disappoint, either; the new rounds now used a smokeless powder and Slater no longer had to worry about gun smoke filling a compartment during a protracted battle. In addition, the rounds had a higher velocity and were thus more powerful, which would help them penetrate the armor that many of the boarders seemed to have. He ordered his drones to replace the weapons and ammunition on his kobolds with the newer versions. Slater changed out any blunderbusses over to the new rifle, feeling that the new weapon was superior and not wanting to have to produce multiple ammunition types.

  Pulling up his research tab, Slater decided to pursue some more research on his ship’s systems. He had his engineering node begin to research the engineering station level 3 and had research node 1 start work on the laboratory level 2. For the research node that had completed the drone research, he was torn. On the one hand, he wanted to unlock the orcs. On the other hand, he wanted to check out one of the ship’s weapons systems. Figuring his MOBS were good enough for now, Slater placed his free point into weapons for his ship, curious to see if his catapult prediction held true for the level 0 weapons.

  It was now time to test out his defilers and the eviscerator against some of his other MOBS to gauge their effectiveness before he went back to reorganizing the compartments. Of course, he knew of a couple of privates who had requested to watch the festivities in what they were calling the Slaterdome. He liked the name and changed the generic testing lab label in his core interface with “Slaterdome.” In keeping with the theme, he changed the room dimensions to a large circle for the next experiments. He linked it to the viewscreens in the humans’ recreation area and labeled the channel “Slaterdome.” With the stage set, he made an announcement about the upcoming festivities, trying to make it a fun activity for all involved.

  “Come one, come all, tune in on ship’s channel 3 to watch a once-in-a-lifetime event. Broadcast to human viewers for the first time ever, the USS Franklin is proud to present . . . the Slaterdome!” His nanobots transmitted the message to every chamber, altering his voice to resemble the cheesy announcers from the monster bot destruction pits that had been very popular in the rural areas of Earth back in his time.

  The humans were all currently in the rec area, the soldiers conducting PT (physical training) and the doctor examining vids of the recent drone upgrade process. Lieutenant Camden shook his head and the doctor looked up in confusion. Sergeant Gonzales, who had been leading the PT session, halted the exercise and looked around the room.

  “Sergeant, Private Harris requesting permission to fall out and observe the instructional programming that Captain Slater has prepared for us,” Harris requested with a smirk on his face.

  Sergeant Gonzales looked over to Lieutenant Camden, who gave a slight nod. “Fall out. As soon as the programming is complete, I will lead the squad in a brisk jog through all the compartments, and I will be asking Captain Slater to make the hatches as difficult as possible. We don’t want to get soft with this easy derelict living,” Gonzales said before grabbing a drink from the food and beverage dispenser.

  The two privates grabbed some water and found the popcorn setting, each of them grabbing a bowl of “dispenser-processed popcorn-shaped ration bits.”

  “Nice! Did you see how Slater started using the name I came up with?” Harris asked.

  “Yep, good work, my man. Do you think Mr. Bitey will get a shot at the title fight anytime soon?” Long asked while trying to feed a popcorn bit to the rat. Unlike its non-derelict-created kin, the rat refused any food, much to Long’s disappointment.

  “Lock it up, you two. I want to see what’s happening without listening to your yammering for once,” Gonzales said as he dialed up the channel on the viewscreen.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, today’s first battle will feature our valiant kobold warriors squaring off against a horde of the evil defilers,” Slater announced. He had printed up five kobolds with the new weapons and a dozen defilers to fight against them. The two teams were placed at opposite ends of the arena and stared blankly at each other. Slater would have to work on getting them to show some facial expressions, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it.

  “Will the good Doctor Cheng be so kind as to say ‘start’? Once she does, the battle will begin,” Slater advised.

  Doctor Cheng looked a bit shocked that she had been chosen. “Let the games begin!” she shouted, getting into the spirit of the event.

  The kobolds with rifles wasted no time, shouldering their weapons and banging out a brisk fire into the charging defilers. Eight defilers fell to the powerful rounds, though the charging creatures caught a break as the kobold weapons began to run dry. Kobold warriors hurried to pull rounds from their ammo pouches and feed them into the rifles. With no other instructions, the kobolds mindlessly continued to try and load rounds until their weapons were full instead of just loading a round or two in order to have a chance to fire again before the swarm of defilers hit them. Slater would have to see about altering their threat response options when he got a chance.

  Only four defilers were still standing as they slammed into the kobold warriors, who were still trying to reload. The last kobold dropped his rifle and extended his wrist blade, slashing at one of the attacking defilers. The defilers’ slashing claws tore into the kobolds, dealing massive damage before the ones being attacked decided to drop their weapons and extend their blades as well. The fight was short and vicious once it devolved into a melee. The defilers had the advantage in hand-to-hand combat, but the higher-level kobolds with their wrist blades gave as good as they got. When the shooting, stabbing, slashing, and biting was over, one bloodied and battered kobold warrior stood as the sole survivor of the battle.

  “Ha, I win! You have to clean my gear for a week,” Harris said to a moping Private Long. The humans cheered as Slater cut the feed and the drones began to reprocess the detritus of the battle.

  “Do you mind if I make a suggestion for your kobolds?” Lieutenant Camden asked.

  “Please do. In addition to the entertainment value, I was hoping to get some input,” Slater replied.

  Camden pulled out his datapad and sketched his suggestions on it before showing it to Slater. “That’s a basic sketch of a stripper clip. The clip holds five rounds and would allow your kobolds to reload their weapon much faster than just feeding in the rounds one at a time. I also suggest scaling down the weapons if you can. The rifles they have are long and unwieldy for the smaller kobolds. Think about making a shorter carbine version of the rifle, which will help them handle the weapon easier. The only difference between the two is a shorter barrel. You lose accuracy at extreme range, but that’s not a problem on a ship,” Lieutenant Camden advised.

  These were great ideas and ones Slater thought he could easily create without tying up his engineering station.

  “One other thing if you don’t mind my input, sir,” Sergeant Gonzales added. “The little guys need a bayonet on the end of that rifle. When something like a defiler is charging them, instead of dropping their rifles and extending their wrist-mounted blades, they can j
ust thrust the rifle as a spear. That would give them some extra reach against bigger opponents, and if the rifle is knocked away, they would still have the wrist blades to fall back on.”

  It was another great idea Slater thought he could manage. Before jumping into the engineering station, he wanted to give his humans a grand finale, so he had the drones print up one of each type of MOBS he could make. Slater had to scrap a few of his existing MOBS to gather enough core power, but replacing them after the battle shouldn’t take long.

  “Those are great ideas. Exactly what I was hoping you could help me with. I’ll get started on that as soon as the final event is over. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the grand melee,” Slater said, changing his mind and having the drones print up three of everything except for only two of the taskmasters and one of each boss MOBS.

  “Awesome, we get another brawl. Anything to delay me having to clean Harris’s rancid gear,” Long replied as the feed kicked back in, showing the MOBS lined up around the outer edge of the ring.

  “For the grand melee, we have three of each type of the regular MOBS I can produce. We also have a pair of taskmasters and our two brave bosses. You know the kobold captain, and now I’m proud to introduce to you . . . the eviscerator!” Slater announced to the clapping humans.

  “Lieutenant, if you would do the honors,” Slater said.

  “Go!” the lieutenant yelled, and the MOBS began to fight. The rats shot out immediately and began to tear into the defilers next to them, who were also set upon by the eviscerator boss. Next to the eviscerator, the three kobold warriors started blasting away at the taskmasters. On the other side of the taskmasters, the kobold captain drew both pistols and fired at the three drones approaching him, destroying two before closing into melee. The battle was furious. The defilers went down quickly under the combined assault of the rats and the eviscerator, who then began to fight each other.

  The kobold warriors brought down the taskmasters while losing two of their own. The taskmasters’ skill at leadership was of little help when they were fighting so close together. The surviving kobold warrior fired its last round at the captain, then began to clumsily reload his weapon one round at a time, likely wishing Slater had already researched the stripper clips. The warrior’s last shot slammed into the captain’s shoulder. Not a kill shot, but a wound that would restrict the captain’s ability to use that arm. The captain retracted his wrist blade, which he had used to kill the last drone. Once the blade retracted, the captain hurried over to pick up a rifle from one of the dead taskmasters.

  Taking aim, the captain was able to fire just as the warrior finished his reload, the heavy round easily taking out the last warrior as it frantically tried to raise its own weapon to fire. The captain then held onto the rifle as he waited for his laser pistols to recharge—Slater making a note to update the weapons loadout on his boss. His captain boss MOBS stood in place, watching to see who the winner of the fight between the rats and the eviscerator turned out to be. The rats had only lost one of their number during the initial fight with the defilers, the eviscerator having drawn most of the defilers’ attention. The remaining pair scratched and bit the boss creature, who slammed his knee into one rat, the bony protrusion impaling the little creature. The second rat managed to tear out a chunk of flesh with its teeth and sawed away a rather large piece. The eviscerator dug in its claws and tore the rat in half even as the tail spike drove into one of its thighs. Victorious, the eviscerator looked about the area for other foes to battle.

  The captain’s borrowed rifle only held two more rounds, which the captain fired at the eviscerator. One round hit the eviscerator in the stomach, and the second hit the creature’s thigh, right next to the wound the rat had given it. The eviscerator hobbled toward the captain, who slowly backed away, dropped the rifle, and waited for his pistols to recharge. The last few seconds weren’t too exciting as the captain was easily able to keep his distance from the wounded eviscerator until his weapons charged and a pair of laser blasts to the face ended the fight. The first Slaterdome grand melee was a victory for the kobold captain.

  “We have a winner of the grand melee, your favorite and mine, the captain!” Slater announced.

  The crowd of five humans started cheering and clapping. “Thank you for turning a weapons test into an entertaining show. Do you think we could teach the MOBS to perform something more culturally uplifting? A play or some of the classics?” the doctor asked. “I think the kobold captain would make a good Macbeth, don’t you think?”

  “I’ll see what I can do. No promises, though, Doctor Cheng,” Slater said disingenuously . . . not having any intention of turning the Slaterdome into a theater.

  — 22 —

  With the exciting battles of the first-ever Slaterdome completed, Slater decided it was time to continue updating and populating his new compartments. First, he made sure that his human crew were still within their assigned areas as the drones and nanobots went back to work. He had left off with the trapped passageway and then added the kobold mess hall after that. He trimmed the total number of kobolds to four, keeping the taskmaster in there to command them. He also kept the rats in the trashcan. The trick had worked out well, though he would need a larger trashcan if the rats grew more with their next level-up. The hidden compartment traps would be the logical choice, but he liked the idea of the rats hiding in plain sight.

  Jump drive repairs have been completed. Random jump in 22 hours, 13 minutes.

  Oh no, that wouldn’t do. There was no way he wanted to jump when the human fleet had to be close. He felt along his core pathways, looking for a jump drive. There wasn’t a specific jump drive in his derelict. It turned out that his nanobots would link together and form the necessary jump field without the need for a dedicated drive or even the need to be at a jump point. He could find no way to take control of the system; the council or whoever had hardwired his nanobots to prevent any intrusion into that part of their coding. Instead, he found where the nanobot link that controlled jumps connected with his core and isolated it, stopping the countdown in its tracks.

  Random jump in 22 hours, 12 minutes, 48 seconds . . . error! Cannot connect to the network. Please see the troubleshooting guide to repair this fault.

  His workaround seemed to be effective and the countdown paused as the error notice flashed. Slater kept the message on his display for a while, watching to make sure the nanobots didn’t try to automatically correct the error on their own. When the error notice didn’t change after several long minutes, a wave of relief washed over him; he did not want to jump to some random place when he was so close to home. He took his mind off the halted jump sequence and went back to updating his derelict compartments.

  With a final few tweaks, the mess hall compartment was complete. He had the tables so they would impede intruders when they first entered. As an additional touch, the tables the kobolds sat at were hinged on one side so they could be flipped over to provide cover. After reinforcing the structure of the flip-up tables, Slater was notified that his research on the ship’s weapons was complete. Pulling up the information, he realized he had more research to do before his ship could go toe to toe with another vessel in combat.

  Laser Cannon Battery, Level 0: The laser cannon battery requires an entire compartment that has access to the exterior of the vessel. The cannon requires 250 resources to install as well as 1 core power. The cannon needs a targeting scanner to operate efficiently.

  A new research path is unlocked for long-range scanners. While your nanobots can keep track of objects close to your derelict, a dedicated scanner system is required in order to target weapons effectively and gain data on the system you are currently in.

  Slater had wondered what type of weapon would be unlocked; he had been secretly hoping for another railgun, the main battery weapon he was most familiar with. It seemed that the other races in the universe preferred laser-based weaponry, so it was logical that the nanobots would lead his research in that direction. H
e would now have to research the ship’s scanner schematic, which he assumed would unlock targeting scanners. With a sigh of disappointment, he dropped the research point freed up by the laser cannon research and put it into scanners. In addition, he decided to build a cannon battery in the compartment after the mess hall, curious to see how it worked and what it looked like. His drones and nanobots got to work on the cannon battery as he prepared the next chamber—the rat-keeper room.

  Slater wanted to increase the difficulty of the room, but with the laser cannon taking some of his precious core power, he decided to leave the layout the same. The room performed poorly against any attackers with ranged weapons but had been deadly to the mass of defilers the admiral had unleashed on him. It wasn’t too bad of an idea to have a few rooms specialized for a particular threat, and at least for now, Slater had no way of knowing if swarm attacks of low-tech creatures were going to be a common occurrence. He did tweak the layout a bit, trying something new by having two small platforms welded to the wall next to the top of the entry hatch. A narrow ramp led up and would allow a rat to crouch there—hopefully undetected—and pounce on any intruders.

  The laser cannon compartment was completed by the time he was done tweaking the rat-keeper room. Switching his view to the external hull, he could see a good-sized cannon swiveling on its mount, looking for targets it wouldn’t be able to see without a targeting scanner until they were within point-blank range. He could feel the connection of the weapon to his derelict and knew he would be able to choose targets and order the weapon to fire on his command or set it to various predetermined automated options. There was, thankfully, no crew requirement, and despite the weapon being attached on the exterior, the compartment itself was stuffed full of capacitor relays and the storage devices necessary to build up enough of a power charge to fire the weapon.