Chapter 36. Beehive.


    “Setting a course for the last known location of the station,” Watkins said as he perused the system information in both his and Lani’s database. It would take them a few days to reach their destination, and while they sailed, Watkins would have time to review any data the other two sensor buoys gave them.


    The buoy near the station had only an intermittent connection, but Watkins figured that connection would improve as the distance closed. Their final buoy was near the outermost planet, a barren place that held no life or from what Lani’s data indicated, any desirable resources. It would have been nice to have resource rich world in the system, but for now, Watkins was just happy to finally receive more data about the area.


    With reduced thrust to help hide their approach, they had a three-day journey ahead of them. Before they set out, Watkins gathered a few more of the larger bits of debris, filling up half of the shuttle bay with random salvage while the last part of the kobold missile launcher was still attached to the hull and being processed.


    It took a full day for his drones to process all the salvage. While that was being accomplished, his hull had completed repairs, along with the sensor bank that was mounted on the keel of his ship. With everything integrated and working, his vision expanded greatly. Based on the knowledge already in his core, and in Lani’s database, he estimated that his sensor ranges were at least 10% longer than the range of the sensors on the kobold ships.


    The kobold ships were just civilian transports renovated for pirate duty. Those renovations mostly included bolting on a point defense gun and mounting disposable missile launchers onto the hull. They had less information on the halfling ships, and they would have to be wary when approaching one.


    Watkins felt that if he could do some additional research on his hull, he might find a way to not only make it stronger but also incorporate some additional stealth features. He did manage to complete the torpedo launcher research after the second day of travel. A system prompt explained what he could now build.


    You have completed researching, Torpedo Launcher, Level 0. You may now build out the internal components of a torpedo launcher for your vessel. This launcher can accommodate most of the common missile and torpedo variants.


    For researching Torpedo Launcher, Level 0, you have gained 10 Core Points (CP).


    Missile, Level 0, has been researched in conjunction with the Torpedo Launcher.


    While you do not possess the knowledge of how to create a torpedo, a basic anti-ship missile may now be produced. Research further missile upgrades to eventually unlock the more powerful variants.


    For researching Missile, Level 0, you have gained 10 CP.


    “It looks like we finally have some long-range firepower. The missiles aren’t that great, but they can extend our reach a lot further than the main guns are able to,” Watkins said as he looked over the details of the missile.


    “Excellent, it looks like a standard pattern missile is all we can produce now, but it’s not that far off from what the kobolds launched at us. Even better, we aren’t limited to a couple of shots from a disposable launcher bolted onto our hull,” Lani said.


    She was right, the missiles would perform a bit more poorly than the kobold weapons had done. His payload was also about 40% less, which would greatly reduce the damage compared to his potential foes. His torpedo room had already been constructed, but now his drones could build out and fine tune the final bits and pieces that it needed to function, as well as create a magazine to hold additional weapons.


    The missiles took a sizeable amount of salvage to create, 20 units each, and that was salvage he’d never recover. Still, it gave him more firepower and he had more than enough spare salvage to build multiple missiles. A quick examination of the available space showed that his magazine could comfortably hold six weapons. That number would jump to eight if he wanted to keep two missiles loaded into the tubes.


    His magazine was designed to protect his ship in the event of a mishap, blowing out an armored panel at the bottom of the hull to direct the blast of an exploding magazine outward. There was a danger in carrying weapons in the tubes, as the blowout panels were only for the magazine itself. For now, he would fill the magazine and get a feel for how long it took to build the missiles.


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    To his surprise, the missiles were built in sections that were hauled to the torpedo launchers by his drones. It was rather inefficient, and he’d have to wait for more research to figure out a better way to handle this. Thinking about his research, Watkins had to figure out what to start on next. With his drones taking an active physical role in building his missiles, it was probably time to bump them up a level.


    As soon as Watkins tried to start the drone research, he received a new system prompt.


    You may not progress any research past Level 1 at this point. Boost your core level to unlock new research options. Please note that your core is limited to research that is only 1 level above your current core and research module level.


    That narrowed down Watkins’ next upgrade options. He was possibly going into combat soon, so adding another defensive upgrade might be worth it. Watkins pulled up his current defensive research options.


    Ship’s Defenses:


    <ol>


    <li> Shields, Level 0. </li>


    <li> Hull armor, Level 0. </li>


    <li> Internal weapon hardpoint: Initial. </li>


    <li> Unknown defensive weapon system: Initial. </li>


    </ol>


    The internal weapon hardpoint was intriguing, and his limited data suggested that it would allow him to build simple automated weapon turrets and the like as he followed that research chain. It would help supplement his defensive MOBS, and make boarding the Canon a costly proposition. He was also curious about the unknown defensive weapon system.


    His shields and hull armor were both at level 0 and he didn’t know if he would finish up level 1 research, and have time to install upgrades, before they reached the station. That left either the internal weapons or the mystery defensive weapon. Of the two, he was more concerned about a space battle at this time, so he went with the unknown.


    Unknown defensive weapon system research has initiated. Due to prior examination of a sample of this system, partial knowledge has been retained. Research is currently at 23%.


    “Well, that’s nice, we got a bump in research. I thought we’d be starting at zero considering what happens if I halt research using the modules,” Watkins said. From his understanding, the research percentage would slowly deteriorate if he halted one project to shift to another.


    “It seems that the research bump is due to your core directly examining the details when you took the weapon apart in the reprocessor. Since research wasn’t being done in the discrete research modules, you were able to retain the information. This research boost is probably something that will only happen when you actively take something apart to figure out how to build it instead of just conducting theoretical research using the module,” Lani explained.


    “I’ll take any advantage I can get if it saves time. Having actual parts of a device isn’t going to happen all that often. We may find some things aboard the station or the kobold ships if we take them intact,” Watkins said.


    With the head start, his research on the defensive weapon system progressed quickly, though his reprocessor research was chugging along slowly and sitting at 83%. Barring any emergencies, boosting his research modules to level one was going to have to be his next task.


    As Watkins suspected, the sensor data on the station area began to fill in as they got closer to the sensor buoy. Lani helped him sort through the data, using her prior knowledge of the station. He could sense a reactor aboard the station was running, though it wasn’t doing so very cleanly, and leaks from the reactor core lit up his sensor banks.


    There was also a single ship stationed nearby the station or perhaps docked to it, but the distance was too great to know for sure just yet. He suspected the ship was the kobold vessel that had run away from the halflings earlier, but he could confirm it later. Watkins was tempted to order the sensor buoy to go active and paint every nearby target, but that would probably destroy the device, and signal that he was coming.


    So far, the station and the nearby ship hadn’t reacted to his presence. How long that would last, was anyone’s guess. At least when they did finally spot him, his foe would be coming up against a fully functional vessel with shields, repaired armor, and a full complement of weapon systems.


    They were six hours from the station when his research on the new weapon system completed. Watkins immediately ordered the research module to work on figuring out its own level one upgrade. The new defensive system he’d unlocked proved to be an interesting supplement to his point defense lasers.


    Beehive missile defense. This defense system fires a swarm of small, unguided projectiles at the target. Not individually powerful, the smaller projectiles are perfect for destroying incoming missiles or small craft. Simple to use and difficult to avoid, this system is intended to supplement, not replace any other point defense weapons your ship might possess.


    The grid pattern of the weapon and the residual propellant had given him clues as to the weapon’s use. It was essentially a claymore mine on the hull of his ship, a very close-range weapon to defeat incoming missiles. It could only fire once, so he would have to build several across his hull for them to be effective in a longer fight.


    His drones could reload the beehive system, but that would likely be impossible to manage during a fight. Everything he wanted for the coming fight would have to be built out and loaded before he got into action. He had the salvage available, so a team of drones left the shuttle bay to begin construction on four of the beehive systems.


    Hopefully they would be completed soon, as they were getting closer to the station, and it was only a matter of time before the kobolds spotted him.