Repel Boarders Read online

  While he was waiting for the cargo hold to build, Slater had the drones print up the creatures for this room: two kobolds and two pairs of bilge rats. The bilge rats moved to the top of the cargo containers while the kobolds stayed on the ground and used the large metal boxes for cover. When a foe entered, the kobolds could pop out, fire their rifles, and duck back behind the container as their weapons recharged. If the explorers charged a kobold, they would find a rat or two dropping on top of them.

  The cutlass and laser rifle for the kobolds would cost him a total of thirty salvage. Slater was starting to run low on salvage once again; his new existence was turning into a lesson on resource bottlenecks. He thought about skimping a bit and going with a dagger and laser pistol combo but decided that his MOBS needed every advantage they could get. Even though his current version of a dagger was better than the old prison shank weapon he had unlocked, his diminutive kobolds needed the extra reach the cutlass provided. Later, he might need to revisit the melee weapon side of things, going for cheaper daggers over the cutlass if close-range fights turned out to be rare, which he doubted.

  The next compartment after the newly created cargo hold was the mess hall. The mess hall was already a large room, so Slater left the dimensions and layout the same. He decided to let his kobolds keep their weapons on their person instead of in the weapons rack. The challenge still seemed a bit weak for what he wanted, so Slater had the drones print up a taskmaster to lead the kobolds in this room. Equipping the taskmaster with a laser rifle and cutlass left him with a paltry nineteen salvage and capped out his core power.

  The hall that led to the bridge—now aptly named the bridge passageway—was left as it was. Slater had added the tripwire trap between the pits before leveling up the core and didn’t have the core power or salvage to waste on more MOBS or traps in the room. It was more of a mental challenge here, a test of the explorers’ perception skills after being worn down from the earlier fights.

  For the final room, the bridge, Slater wanted to make the battle difficult. The room was expanded to maximum size, and the consoles were reinforced, providing better cover for the crew. Slater pulled a pair of rats from his core room and assigned them to the bridge. Once they were given their new assignment, Slater spent way too much time figuring out how to print uniforms for the little guys. The pair of rats were now decked out in gold rat-sized coveralls. He wanted them to become what he thought of as the kobold captain’s pets. Once he unlocked the lab, Slater wanted to play around with improving the pet rats so they became proper bodyguards for his derelict’s boss.

  Alert! Scanners are detecting a vessel approaching.

  Slater suppressed the urge to talk to Pixi and ask about the approaching ship. Through his connection to the nanobots, Slater watched the ship. To his tentative relief, the ship looked different from the kobold ships he had seen so far. This ship was even larger than the kobold vessel that had attacked the Franklin and her fleet so long ago. Blocky and utilitarian described what was slowly approaching Slater. His nanobots highlighted several sensor and shield arrays, as well as what looked like weapons emplacements on the hull. Despite the weapons, Slater had the distinct impression this was a work vessel, not a warship. Who or what might be inside the mystery ship? The question would be answered for him soon; the vessel was on a vector to dock with his derelict.

  Once again, Slater didn’t have time to complete everything he had wanted to before meeting another group of explorers. He had hoped to move around the hatch positions using compartment manipulation, but even now he could hear the thump of a ship connecting to the airlock. His newest guests had arrived.

  — 11 —

  Slater moved his view over to the boarding hatch, strangely wishing that Pixi was there for him to speak with. He pushed the thought aside, remembering that the murderous parasite was out to consume him, not be his buddy. The hatch clanged open, and a metallic object dropped from the alien ship. The object was a large cylinder about three feet in length and a foot in diameter. It rolled along the floor, coming to a stop against the wall of the passageway. Three metal legs protruded from the sides of the cylinder, and the thing hauled itself upright. The top of the cylinder opened, and the barrel of a weapon extended out. The barrel swept the corridor, looking for a target. Slater was very thankful he hadn’t wasted many resources on MOBS in the entryway; he doubted anything he could produce would stand up to the automated turret in front of him.

  A second cylinder dropped and positioned itself on the other side of the passage. The two would be able to put up a deadly crossfire against anything coming their way. Slater was curious about what the weapons fired but also wished he didn’t have to find out. After a few moments of calm, a group of humanoids dropped into the derelict. There were five of them, and they spread out in an efficient manner; these explorers moved like they knew what they were doing.

  The newest visitors were shorter than the average human adult, coming in at just under five feet tall. Their thick bodies and long beards gave them away instantly. Slater might not have been a huge fan of fantasy, but he knew a dwarf when he saw one. These dwarves were armed with short-barreled rifles of several different types. In addition to the mysterious rifles, they all had a melee weapon on their person, mostly hammers, picks, and the like. Each dwarf was armored in a hard metallic breastplate of an unknown material. Solid boots covered their feet, and shin guards protected their lower legs. All wore helmets with various attachments on them, each dwarf having a different setup on his helmet. Some had what looked like scopes, others had small spinning radar dishes, and one dwarf’s helm was completely covered in things that Slater couldn’t imagine the purpose of, save for poor taste in decoration.

  “I’m telling ye, boss, this here is a new derelict. Given how small it is, there’s no way it can hold much of an interest for us,” one of the dwarves said to the one with the most attachments on his helmet.

  “Aye, most likely it is. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take a peek and introduce ourselves. You never know when the beastie will jump into a system we’re in years from now, all grown up and fat with loot. Best when meetin’ a new derelict to establish with it that we play by the rules so they don’t go all out on ye. Play the game likes ye should and the derelict will reward ye,” the lead dwarf advised.

  Slater was nodding his nonexistent head in agreement; this dwarf was the type of explorer he was hoping would show up, not more of the foul kobolds.

  “Bah, nothing here to waste our time on. Only one good piece of loot a place this small can hold, and I know just the people to talk with, people who could set us up for life,” the dwarf with the least ornamentation on his helmet said. Slater did not like the tone of this one—not one bit.

  “Ye’ll keep yer waggin’ tongue to yerself, Quint!” the leader warned. “A derelict can see and hear everything in its domain. We’re in this system to search for new mining opportunity, not do what ye be thinkin’ o’ doin’. This will be just a brief stop. Then it’s back to work for the lot of us. Any more out of ye, Quint, and ye’ll not serve a day with me crew again.” Slater was rapidly becoming a fan of this dwarf captain.

  “Since ye like to have made this derelict all riled up now, why don’t you and yer brother lead the way, Quint,” the leader ordered.

  Quint looked angry, his grip on his weapon tightening in response. “Come on with me, Daegan. We’re not afeared of some two-bit derelict out here in the middle of nowhere.”

  He moved to the hatch to the garbage compartment without hesitation. The hatch squealed and clanged open; the dwarf was easily able to open it on his own, unlike the kobolds. Quint and Daegan entered and swept the room with their weapons, looking for movement. When nothing revealed itself, the rest of the team followed.

  “Watch yer fields o’ fire, Bhartak and Lhargum. No shooting Quint in the back now,” the leader muttered to the others in the rear of the formation.

  Quint turned to snap back at the leader when two pairs of S
later’s bilge rats made their move and shot out from either side of the brothers in front. All the dwarves reacted like experienced fighters, and five well-placed shots were loosed. All of Slater’s four bilge rats went down in the volley. His first room had been cleared in seconds, without a scratch on the dwarves. Strangely enough, unlike the kobolds he had fought earlier, the dwarves were equipped with a wide variety of weapons. Two of them, including the so-far unnamed leader and Daegan, were wielding a type of projectile weapon. The distinct boom of the rifles firing was more familiar to Slater than the high-pitched ping of a laser rifle.

  “Bilge rats. What is this garbage? Is this the loot you were looking forward to, boss?” Quint complained, holding up the bilge rat tooth that he looted.

  “We’re here to explore, not for the loot. This derelict is likely new and can use all the resources it can get. Drop that loot so the ship can reprocess it,” the leader ordered. Slater was liking this dwarf more and more.

  The crew of explorers moved up to and opened the door to the cargo hold chamber. The dwarves moved like pros, the brothers taking one side, the leader and his remaining crew on the other. The kobolds popped out, firing their laser rifles. One scored a lucky hit on the leader, and the dwarves returned fire. One of the kobolds went down, a laser bolt drilling through its head. The second kobold barely made it to cover in time, a projectile passing so close it must have clipped a couple of scales off the top of the kobold’s head. Well-timed fire pinged off the container the kobold was crouched behind while it waited for its laser rifle to recharge. The dwarves used fire and movement to creep closer to the last kobold, trying to uncover a clear shot.

  As the dwarves passed under the tall container the bilge rats were hiding on, Slater’s critters made their play. Four rats leaped down onto a single dwarf. Bhartak or Lhargum, Slater thought. He was having trouble telling the dwarves apart, forgetting which unique helmet went with each dwarf. Quick reactions on the part of the dwarves saw two rats blasted away before they could land. The dwarf with the spinning radar dish on his helmet deflected the final pair of falling rats enough to prevent them from getting at his vulnerable neck. One rat clamped onto the dwarf’s armored vest, gnawing away bits of the metal but not making much headway. The other rat tried to scurry up the dwarf’s leg to get at some of the tastier unarmored bits, but the dwarf’s heavy boot stomped down and ended the scampering rat. With hands protected by armored gloves and muscles hardened by work, the dwarf plucked the bilge rat off his armor and squeezed. The rat gave a pitiful squeak, squirming ineffectively in the dwarf’s grip until the rat went still with a disturbing crunching sound. Dropping the dead bilge rat on the ground, the dwarf merely chuckled at the small gouge in his armor.

  “These wee little beasties have a sharp bite. Mind yerselves, lads,” the dwarf that Slater now thought was Bhartak said while running a finger over the nick in his armor. The final kobold’s rifle had recharged, and he popped back over the container to take a shot. A bolt from one of the dwarven laser rifles was there to meet him, cutting down the hapless kobold before he could fire.

  These guys were way too good for Slater’s derelict. He had to hope the leader was honest when he said he was just here to make contact and explore. The only damage he had done to them so far was some scratched armor from the bilge rat’s teeth and a scorch mark from the laser that hit the leader but didn’t come close to penetrating his breastplate. Slater wished he could take one of these dwarves down so he could duplicate all their gear for his MOBS.

  Again, the group left Slater’s paltry loot behind. He was almost feeling slighted that his derelict’s offerings were not good enough for them, but he couldn’t complain about being able to recover the very scarce salvage. While the group of dwarves blasted their way with ease through the mess hall, Slater poured through his interface tabs, looking over the loot. All the rooms had automatically been set to normal loot drops, something he couldn’t change while explorers were in the derelict. The boss did have the option for Slater to upgrade his loot with a specific item. He considered what to give these dwarves as they finished up the mess hall crew and deftly avoided all three of his traps in the bridge passageway.

  These guys were pros, but they weren’t derelict explorers; they were miners, according to their leader, the only dwarf that hadn’t revealed his name. What would miners want that Slater could give them as a reward and, if he was honest, also as a bribe to nudge them toward not destroying his core? His loot options were meager, but he did recall one thing that might be of use to them.

  Slater opened his interface and scanned through the data within, remembering that Pixi had said something about the ship’s records being saved when he was transformed into a derelict. He found an option under the help tab to scan for specific data and commenced his search. Having your mind packed with more processing power than any computer humanity had ever created had its advantages. He quickly found the data he sought, and now he needed a way to give it to the dwarves. Human data storage devices were easy enough for him to replicate, but did dwarves have hardware that was compatible? Deciding to go the safe route, Slater had various types of storage devices filled with the data as well as the most relevant information printed out onto paper. With the prize finished, he added it to the kobold captain’s loot just as the hatch to the bridge was opened.

  The boss and his four crewmates acquitted themselves well. Slater grinned as the kobold captain fired both pistols into the chest of the annoying dwarf Quint. One of the shots did some damage, based on the squeal of pain the dwarf made. His kobolds scored another pair of hits on other dwarves with their laser rifles, though none of the hits penetrated the stout armor these dwarves wore. The return fire from the dwarves was intense and accurate; the regular kobolds went down with one shot each, and the boss took three rounds like a champ before dying.

  “Ah, that stupid kobold actually hit me,” Quint whined as his brother tried to pull off his armor and apply a bandage to Quint’s scorched chest. Unfortunately, the dwarf put his chest armor back on. Slater was hoping he would leave the damaged piece behind and give him a new schematic. The leader looted the boss kobold, holding up one of the data chips and placing it into a handheld reader he had taken from his pack. It looked like the device was compatible with human tech.

  “What did the boss drop? Directions on how to clean up bilge rat dung?” Quint whined.

  “Nae, you ungrateful fool. This here derelict must ha’ been payin’ attention to our chattering. It’s given us the survey information for the system. Look for yourself, Quint,” the leader said, throwing the device over to Quint.

  “Bah, there’s nothing here in this lousy system. No great treasure waiting for us to dig up on some asteroid or hidden resources stashed in an abandoned station. This system is nothing but useless slag, just like this derelict is. There’s only one thing of value here, and we should take it from this weak joke of a ship,” Quint said before looking about the room. He stopped right in front of the secret door, spotting it easily.

  “This wee chip may not be revealin’ us any treasure troves, but it will save us all the most important resource in the universe: it’ll be savin’ us time. We could have wasted months in the system, scanning for mineral deposits that aren’t here. Now we can move on ta greener pastures. Ye should be thanking the derelict, as this be a great treasure for as new a ship as this one is,” the leader replied.

  “It’s right in there waiting for us. Bet it isn’t guarded by more than a pair of bilge rats,” Quint said, his hands looking for the secret door latch.

  The leader walked over and took the device back before slamming the butt of his rifle into Quint’s head, laying him out flat on the ground. “That’s not how we work, and you’ll not sail with me crew ever again, Quint. Ye and yer brother can shove off as soon as we make port. I’ll not ha’ any dissension in me ranks,” the leader ordered.

  With a huff, Quint and his brother moved back to their ship but didn’t say another word.
The leader was the last to re-board their ship, pausing only to retrieve their defensive turrets . . . unfortunately not leaving them behind for Slater to copy.

  Instead of blasting off, to Slater’s delight, the ship remained attached for a while. The longer they were there, the more salvage his nanobots could gather. The leader and another of his crew dragged a pair of crates down from their ship. Slater watched as they opened them and began to leave items on the deck. The leader ordered the other dwarf up into their ship, waiting until his crewman was gone before speaking.

  “Thank ye, derelict. You done me a solid service with this here information. Take these as a token o’ me appreciation. Hope it helps ya to remember to show mercy when ye can, and hopefully I’ll face yer challenge again in the future when ye’ve grown a bit,” the leader said before clambering up into his ship. Another clang sounded as the hatch sealed and the huge dwarven ship pulled away from the derelict.

  Slater had taken in a good amount of resources from the dwarven vessel. The haul improved when the dwarves didn’t take any of the basic loot with them. All told, Slater had made out like a bandit. He ordered the rooms reset and sent drones to see what had been left behind. First and foremost was a collection of coinage of various denominations, giving the derelict a better method of reward than teeth and rat hides. There were also several ingots of refined metals that, along with the crates themselves, gave him a total of over 250 salvage. A finely crafted dagger and a firearm were left behind as well, so he had two new schematics.