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  Slater pulled one of the three drones that were processing the room and tasked it to begin the construction of four kobolds. He adjusted his MOBS to have five drones, a pair of rats, and the four new kobolds he would make. While setting his MOBS selection, Slater was very careful to not exceed his core power, avoiding a repeat of the disaster from earlier.

  Two of the kobolds his drones were making would be equipped with clubs, and two would wield daggers. He wasn’t sure which weapons would be the most effective since he had no idea what else they might face as they reclaimed the rest of the ship. The four drones in the room would go about gathering resources until enough biomass was acquired to print up one of his MOBS. Slater looked on with interest as his drones started the first kobold.

  With a sound that reminded him of an ancient dot-matrix printer he had once seen in a history class, the drone began to print out the kobold. Thankfully, the design included a simple loincloth as clothing; the captain had no desire to see naked kobolds running about his ship. The fact that the drones had reproduced the clothing made him wonder if armor could be fashioned for his MOBS.

  “Pixi, are we stuck with just the schematics we have unlocked, or is there some way to experiment with crafting some gear for our MOBS?” Slater asked.

  “Once we have the full derelict under our control, there will be a research and development option for you to play with. I will warn you that experimenting can be a trap and a waste of resources. You don’t want to burn up all your reserves of salvage and biomass trying to build a better mousetrap—or bilge rat trap, in our case,” Pixi advised.

  Slater was eager to finish the conquest of the derelict so he could see more of what his core was capable of. The biomass from the bodies of the rats and the dead kobolds was more than enough to complete the production of his kobold MOBS. The two food processors in the compartment proved to be an additional windfall of biomass: the drones pulled out over fifty. He had the supplies needed to build a sizeable force. His bottleneck now was the core power limit.

  Slater, Derelict Core, Level 0, Experience: 5/100

  Core Health: 4/100

  Core Power: 10/10

  Biomass: 51

  Salvage: 87

  Nanobot Permeation: 20%

  Compartments Controlled: 4

  Defenses: None

  MOBS: kobolds (4), pair of bilge rats (1)

  Boss MOBS: 0

  Construction Drones: 5

  MOBS Schematics:

  Construction Drone, Level 1

  Kobold, Level 1

  Bilge Rat, Level 0

  Gear Schematics:

  Club, Level 0

  Dagger, Level 0

  Time until next jump: n/a. Core needs to be fully repaired to begin the jump sequence.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask but have been too overwhelmed with other stuff. What’s this about time until next jump?” Slater asked.

  “Yeah, I forgot to mention that. When a derelict hits a system, it’ll stay there for a variable amount of time before it will randomly jump to another system. This was part of the agreement with the council and a way to spread the wealth. No single system gets a monopoly on a derelict. They can jump to and appear anywhere. It can also be a lifesaver, stopping some of the more unsavory types from getting a fix on us too easily,” Pixi advised.

  Being patient was part of the life of a derelict, it seemed, though Slater found that he wasn’t all that affected by it. When he was human, having to wait for the slow process of a drone scooping up debris would have driven him crazy. Now he was able to enjoy watching what was happening, relishing the way he felt as the various parts of his derelict went about their business. In a way, he was like the queen of an insect colony, connected to everything and controlling all within his reach. It should have creeped him out, but somehow, he was fine with the thought. After equipping his kobolds with weapons and processing the last of the salvage in the room, his forces were ready. It was time to take control of the rest of his derelict.

  — 6 —

  Slater pushed salvage into nanobot production, taking control of the next room on his ship. The process was getting easier each time he tried it, and he was now convinced that his bond to the microscopic machines was becoming stronger. There was a feeling associated with taking over a chamber; it reminded him of the pressure he felt right before he cracked his knuckles or popped his back. Once the room was permeated with nanobots, he experienced the same relief he felt when the joint finally popped and the pressure was gone.

  Pushing his viewpoint into the room, Slater could see it was already occupied. A crude chair had been made from a storage crate and some container lids. Upon this “throne” sat a kobold that was larger than the others. It shouted at a half dozen others as they mucked about in the room, searching through piles of supply crates and garbage. When the ship transformed into a derelict core, the process must have dumped all the leftover junk into here. To Slater, in his new mindset, it was no longer junk: it was salvage and biomass ready to be processed.

  The smaller kobolds were like the ones he had fought earlier; they had bits of clothing and makeshift weapons at their disposal. The kobold sitting on the chair wore a more complete outfit, sporting one of the emergency suits the ship kept in case of a hull breach. The helmet was missing, and the sleeves and legs had been cut short, but Slater still recognized his ship’s logo on the breast of the emergency suit. The kobold was better armed than its kin, waving about a pistol of a type Slater hadn’t seen before. In addition to his pistol, a sword was belted onto the big kobold’s waist . . . Slater’s old sword.

  “How did that creep get a hold of my sword? That kobold and his little buddies are going down,” Slater shouted, even as his new interface identified the creatures in front of him as hostile.

  “Keep it down, boss. Good thing we aren’t really talking, or those kobolds might have gained the upper hand on us. As it is, this is going to be a tough fight if that fat kobold is any good with his weapons. I don’t fancy pitting table legs and prison shanks against guns and swords,” Pixi advised.

  “Yeah, sorry about that. We’re going to have to go all-in on this one, throw everything at the kobolds. Our kobolds, the last pair of rats, and four of our five drones are going in,” Slater ordered. He felt his MOBS moving about. He was unable to order this many directly; they were instead gently “pushed” with his mind toward the door. The gaggle of creatures obeyed and walked toward the hatch separating his forces from the new compartment. He was just about to tell his kobolds to open the door and rush in when Pixi stopped him.

  “Hold up there, big guy. Check that out,” Pixi said, gesturing toward the hostile kobolds.

  It was funny that he really couldn’t see Pixi, but he could still tell where he was pointing, one of the benefits of being joined together as a derelict. Where Pixi pointed, several shapes shot out from under the garbage. A trio of bilge rats latched onto the nearest kobold, which had disturbed their nest. The kobold was knocked off his feet and fought in vain against his attackers, stabbing one repeatedly with a sharpened stick as the kobold leader stood and aimed his pistol into the flailing mess of kobold and rat.

  A bright red beam flashed from the pistol, struck the wounded bilge rat, and penetrated farther into the kobold underneath, taking them both out. The remaining pair of rats charged the closest foe. The kobold with the pistol tried to fire again, but the weapons made a strange hissing sound and started to glow red. The heated frame burned the kobold’s hand, causing him to drop it.

  “Now, while they’re distracted, get in there, boys,” Slater ordered. A trio of his kobolds turned the hatch to the next chamber, opening it at a painfully slow pace. Luckily, the hostile kobolds in the other compartment were too busy fighting off the frenzied rats to notice the squeaking hatch. The kobold leader drew Slater’s ancient French cutlass and waved it about, careful to always stay well out of range of any of the fighting. The remaining kobolds were able to finish off the rats just as the hatch s
lammed open, finally drawing their foes’ attention.

  His kobolds streamed into the room, heading toward the nearest opponents. They were followed by the pair of rats, which dived into the piles of garbage to conceal their advance. The drones clattered to the top of the compartment to launch the same drop-down attack they had used on the bilge rats. While Slater couldn’t control his MOBS, he could see the data on what they were attempting to accomplish, as well as estimates on enemy actions, giving him a good feel for the flow of the fight. If he didn’t have a connection to his MOBS, there would have been no way for Slater to tell the sides apart in the fight. All the kobolds were—save for the big one with the cutlass—nearly alike in their attire and gear.

  The first to fall was one of the opposing kobolds, his fellows pushing him forward to meet the charge before moving back. Three of Slater’s MOBS surrounded the kobold, stabbing and pummeling him down. The leader then joined the fray, heartening the remaining four kobolds opposing the forces of the derelict. The cutlass worked as intended; one of the kobold leader’s sloppy chops hacked the head from one of his MOBS. Not stopping, the big kobold continued to chop at the corpse, conveniently letting the other kobolds push forward into the danger. The leader remained at the back of the skirmish as his minions fought against Slater’s MOBS. Another of Slater’s kobolds went down to a lucky stab in the throat from a sharpened stick. In return, one of the enemy kobolds fell to a flurry of blows from his MOBS.

  The tide turned when Slater’s bilge rats popped up from the garbage-strewn floor, nipping at the legs of their enemies with razor-sharp teeth. Distracted by the unexpected attack, the enemy forces were unprepared when the drones unleashed their attack by dropping from the ceiling and landing on their foes. Slater’s own kobolds redoubled their efforts against their confused opponents.

  The drones’ whirring blades and sharp tools didn’t do all that much damage, but having what was essentially a mechanical spider drop on your head and start to slash away at your face tended to prevent you from leading an effective defense. This distraction allowed Slater’s surviving kobolds to finish off all but the leader. The big kobold finally pried the drone off his head, smashing Slater’s little worker with his cutlass. A bite to the back of the leader’s legs by one of the bilge rats hamstrung the creature. It dropped to the deck, where it lost hold of its cutlass. In a matter of moments, the rest of Slater’s forces pounded this last opponent into pulp.

  “Ha! Teach you to mess with our core, right, boss?” Pixi said, elated that he and Slater hadn’t lost, which would have likely meant a death sentence for them.

  “Not bad at all. We only have two kobolds standing, our pair of rats, and three of the drones we sent in. I’ll have the remaining drones replace their lost friend and then get to work on gathering all this stuff,” Slater said.

  Once the replacement was printed and the damage to the other drones was repaired, the four drones began to process the windfall of resources that packed this room. The debris-strewn floor was rich in both salvage and biomass. Thankfully, in this form, Slater couldn’t smell, but he was sure the compartment wasn’t the most pleasant place to live. As the garbage was cleared, the bodies of another kobold and several more bilge rats were discovered. The bilge rats must have proven a big enough distraction to the newly awakened kobolds to enable Slater the time he had needed to build up his forces. If the kobolds hadn’t been delayed and had instead stormed directly toward the core once they had woken up from stasis, he and Pixi would have been dead meat—or dead core, in this case.

  New MOBS Alternate Pattern: Kobold Taskmaster, Level 1. The taskmasters are larger and stronger members of the kobold race. They lord over their lesser kin, using their greater size to intimidate the smaller members of the species into obeying them. They are often assigned as squad leaders or subgroup commanders on kobold vessels. These larger kobolds require 10 biomass to create. Their larger size and improved attack abilities require a higher power consumption than their smaller kin; 2 core power is required to sustain and operate a taskmaster.

  “The extra power and biomass required is going to hurt, but these bigger guys should be more effective, right, Pixi?” Slater asked.

  “Yep, Captain. The taskmaster might even make a good first boss once we finish nabbing this entire place. We’ll go over bosses when we get to that point. For now, concentrate on replacing our losses from the fight,” Pixi suggested.

  Slater queued up a taskmaster to supplement his forces, dropping two regular kobolds to free up the resources for it. He was excited to find out how much more effective it would be compared to the other MOBS. Once his ship was reclaimed, he would have to see about setting up a training facility of some type, a place for him to test his MOBS in order to determine the best way to use them. The drones had more than enough resources to print up the new taskmaster. The only thing that continued to hold him back was the core power limit.

  New Weapon Patterns Unlocked:

  Cutlass: A bladed slashing weapon. Simple but effective. The cutlass requires 5 salvage to produce.

  Laser Pistol: This handheld ranged weapon fires a concentrated beam of light, burning through whatever the pistol is aimed at. With its slow recharge time, the wielder may want a secondary weapon to utilize while the laser pistol recharges its capacitors for another shot. The design you have unlocked has several faults and the weapon has a chance to melt down when fired, causing severe burns to anyone holding it. The chance of a meltdown is increased the longer the weapon is used without allowing it to cool down completely. The laser pistol requires 10 salvage to produce.

  “Those are good drops, Slater. We should equip all our kobolds with pistols and cutlasses,” Pixi suggested.

  He had more than enough resources, so Slater outfitted each kobold with a pistol and blade. At least the weapons upgrades only took salvage resources. He had feared the pistol might have some core power requirement, and he was nearly tapped out of core power at this point.

  The kobolds were finally starting to look a bit dangerous. They were well-armed but still dressed like someone stranded on a deserted island. Unfortunately, the drones hadn’t re-created the emergency suit pattern. His little kobold army would have to hope the weather didn’t turn cold on board the derelict; he doubted their loincloths were good for anything more than modesty.

  “I was curious, Pixi. Where exactly are these notifications coming from?” Slater asked. This was a question he should have brought up sooner. Why wasn’t he concerned about these types of things?

  “Oh, that’s actually you, big guy. Your core is processing information and referencing data we already possess to give us updates and explanations. It’s totally normal for a core. You’ll see less of them as time goes on and you’ll just ‘know’ the information without the distraction of the popups,” Pixi explained.

  Slater accepted the explanation, not wanting to dwell on it when he had other things on his mind. “How many more chambers to go until we have control over the whole place?” he asked.

  “Not sure, but likely only one or two. We’re a new derelict and I’ve never heard of one being larger than six chambers when it first becomes active.”

  Slater nodded and gathered his forces, pushing them toward the room’s exit. So far, the layout of the derelict had been extremely simple. There was a hatch on each side of the ship’s various compartments, and each hatch was always directly across from the other. The only variation had been the size of the rooms and whether they had anything to salvage inside them.

  “Here goes nothing,” Slater said, feeling the pressure build as he pushed more salvage into nanobot production. When the process was complete, he and Pixi stepped through to survey the new compartment. This was another short hallway. Like the other passageway, it was five feet wide, but this time it doglegged to the left and ended in a ten-by-ten-foot room. There was no hatch on the opposite wall of this compartment; instead, there was a round hatch on the ceiling.

  You have successfully g
ained control of the derelict. Experience has been received.

  Slater was happy to see that he was finally in control of his entire ship once more. He did feel a little strange, like he was facing the beginnings of a major headache. This, of course, was impossible, as he no longer had a head.

  “You okay, Slater? You’re looking a little green behind the gills. Check your system information so we can see what’s going on,” Pixi suggested.

  Slater, Derelict Core, Level 0, Experience: 125/100

  Core Health: 4/100

  Core Power: 10/10

  Biomass: 112

  Salvage: 264

  Nanobot Permeation: 30%

  Compartments Controlled: 6

  Defenses: None

  MOBS: kobold taskmaster (1), kobolds (2), pair of bilge rats (1)

  Boss MOBS: 0

  Construction Drones: 5

  MOBS Schematics

  Construction Drone, Level 1

  Kobold Taskmaster, Level 1

  Kobold, Level 1

  Bilge Rat, Level 0

  Gear Schematics:

  Dagger, Level 0

  Club, Level 0

  Cutlass, Level 1

  Laser Pistol, Level 0

  Time until next jump: n/a. Core needs to be fully repaired to begin the jump sequence.

  “Good news, boss! You can upgrade our core. That must be why you’re looking like kobold dung. You’ve got to upgrade to the next level. You should do that right away. Now that we’re in control of this joint, the signal generated by the core is going to be broadcasting louder than ever. This little backwater is a dump, but with the upgrade, we can hopefully jump into somewhere with more action,” Pixi said.

  Slater could tell the little guy was excited, but there was also something off about Pixi’s reactions. Still, he did need to upgrade if he wanted to survive whatever might be drawn to his derelict.

  He began to feel sleepy after starting the upgrade, drifting back into the foggy nothingness that Pixi had awakened him from just a short time ago.