Chapter 39. Station Assault.


    “I’m going to see about getting a shot at the station’s point defense gun, then we’ll close in and attempt to board,” Watkins said.


    The Canon remained outside of the range of the station’s small point defense weapon, but he quickly realized there was a risk in firing his main guns from this far out. The weapons were too powerful and would not only destroy the enemy weapon but could also blast a hole in the station. He was going to have to get in close and slug it out with the station, but he was better armed, armored, and had the benefit of a functional shield.


    They closed the distance, and Watkins held his fire, wanting to make sure his point defense guns hit the target and didn’t miss and burn though the station’s hull. The last thing they wanted was to board the station and find their fire had killed his crew. It meant he was going to have to take some hits before his accuracy could be dialed in as close to 100% as possible.


    The enemy had no restrictions and began to fire as soon as Watkins was in range. It seemed that even though the station had a similar weapon to the one Watkins was using, their targeting ability wasn’t as strong as his. His point defense guns outranged the station weapon, but he had to close well within their firing envelope if he wanted a sure hit.


    The first few pulses from the station’s point defense were thrown off target by Watkins’ evasive maneuvers. As the range continued to close, he found avoiding their shots was becoming difficult. A single pulse glanced off his shield and Watkins could feel the energy flowing through his shields struggle to repel the shot.


    One after another, the point defense laser pulses poked at his ship. After two more shots, he could feel the shield pop as the shield generator shut down. It would take some time before it could activate again, but it was connected to his core, and not some normal power source. Watkins could tell that the down time for his shields was going to be far shorter than any opponent with a traditional system.


    Blasts started to pepper his hull, and Watkins began a slow rotation of his ship to keep the enemy from them targeting the same area. Each blast dug into the armor, which vaporized and managed to ablate into tiny particles that interfered with any follow up shots to the same area. The experience was painful for Watkins, but not unbearable.


    What would happen when larger ship’s guns, or even missiles struck his hull was concerning. He was not looking forward to that level of pain, and he also realized that it was probably going to happen at some point in his new existence. For now, he could endure the pin prick feeling that hit him every time the point defense laser landed a hit. The damage the enemy was doing was negligible and it would take a long time for their single weapon to cause him any real problems.


    “The hit chance is up to 98.231%, that’s about as good as it’s going to get. I’m taking the shot,” Watkins said.


    “You can do it, Watkins,” Lani encouraged him. It was not only his crew that might be aboard that station, but also more of Lani’s data. They both had important things riding on this shot.


    Like slowly pressing a trigger, Watkins lined up his shot and fired off a single laser pulse at the enemy weapon. His shot was on target, and it slammed into the turret mechanism of the enemy laser. The enemy weapon kept firing, but it could no longer traverse or elevate, and with a small puff of a maneuvering thruster, the Canon was out of danger unless they could somehow rotate the station to bring their weapon to bear.


    Not wanting to risk the enemy repairing the weapon somehow, Watkins fired a second time, this hit landed on the barrel housing the laser’s focussing array. Half of the laser’s barrel melted and broke away from the weapon. There was no way for the kobolds, who he doubted had anything like his drones, to repair it before the boarding actions was over and the battle for the station was decided one way or another.


    “I’m taking us in, time to board that station,” Watkins announced, more to bolster his spirits than anything. He was anxious about his crew and found that talking through his actions helped.


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    Watkins checked in on his MOBS production, happy to see he was up to 15 halflings that were ready to go and fully equipped. The last few additions would be ready before they docked at the boarding collar. Moving his forces into the shuttle bay where the cargo airlock was located, Watkins noticed something was missing from his ship.


    “Lani, I’m going to try and create some cover for our troops in the shuttle bay,” Watkins said. There was no way he was going to halt any existing research to develop internal defenses, but what he wanted for this fight should be easy enough for his drones to accomplish without a dedicated schematic.


    He started by cutting into the decking. A half dozen large panels were cut and then hinged on one side. The drones then connected a simple mechanism to raise and lower the panels. When raised, the panels provided cover for his halfling MOBS. If they crouched down, the MOBS would be completely protected.


    Watkins considered cutting view ports into the panels but realized that he didn’t need them. His MOBS were extensions of himself and completely under his control. Their eyes and other senses worked like a normal member of their species would, but they could also see and hear everything Watkins could through their link.


    If an enemy boarded them, his MOBS defending the ship would know exactly the right time to pop out and engage. He tested out his defenses a few times, raising and lowering the panels to make sure they operated smoothly. Watkins could feel Lani watching his work, and it wasn’t long before she came up with the suggestion of calling the retractable panels an automated barricade. Needing to test out his defenses, he had a halfling fire it’s two plasma rifle shots at one of the barricades.


    The shots didn’t penetrate, but the decking wasn’t going to hold up to a third shot, which he tested with the same halfling firing its one pistol shot at the barricade, completely burning through it. A quick check at their approach confirmed he had a bit of time remaining.


    Drones were ordered to reinforce the barricades, using up some of his precious salvage to thicken and reinforce each barricade. That also required a bit of work on the decking to make sure they’d sit flush with the deck when retracted. He wanted a neat and tidy ship, and barricades sticking up an inch from the deck was not only an eyesore and tripping hazard, but it would also reveal the location of his defenses if an enemy was somehow able to do reconnaissance on his ship.


    Two of his halflings could comfortably fit behind each barricade, but he only had six ready to go when their ship connected with flexible docking collar on the kobold station. He half expected the enemy to jettison the collar, which might buy them a few more minutes before he reconnected directly with his ship. Instead, they seemed content to let him board without any additional delay.


    “I’m going to send most of our troops onto the station, but I’ll hold two of the halflings back to help defend against a counterattack on the shuttle bay. Can you help our MOBS in any way during the fight?” Watkins asked.


    “I don’t have the same level of control over the combat MOBS as I do the drones, especially once they leave our ship, but I estimate I can bump the accuracy of three of them by 1.214%,” Lani explained.


    “Every little bit will help,” Watkins answered.


    He could feel Lani boosting the three lead halflings as he felt a connection to the station’s docking hatch link with his core. Watkins was locked out, but he instinctively knew how to bypass the security features of the station. His core was only level zero, but he proved to be much more powerful than the security systems aboard the station.


    “Hatch is opening,” Watkins said. His MOBS stood, raised their plasma rifles and prepared to charge out from the barricades as the hatch on the Canon and the one on the station both started to open. He also had five of his drones just outside the shuttle bay, ready to move in and make any repairs he might need or help repel an attack if the kobolds decided to be aggressive.


    When the hatches were halfway down, two small objects sailed into the shuttle bay. His mind realized they were grenades right before they both exploded. One halfling was cut down as fragments pierced the thin, flexible head covering of his shipsuit. Another halfling took some fragments in his arm, but that MOBS was still functional.


    A replacement halfling was already under construction the moment the other one had fallen. Watkins had set an automatic protocol to replace any losses without needing his direct intervention. It only took a few minutes to fabricate a new MOBS, but every second counted in a battle, and Watkins couldn’t afford even the small delay that waiting for a direct order might cause.


    The barricades proved their worth as most of the grenade was blocked. Another pair of grenades sailed in, but this time, his MOBS were all crouched behind their barricades and fully protected. It was going to delay his attack, but at least the kobolds didn’t have good throwing arms, and all the grenades landed in front of the barricades, not over them where the MOBS would be completely exposed.


    A final volley of grenades was thrown into his ship before the kobolds either ran out of them or wanted to save the remainder for something else. This was the moment he was waiting for, and the halflings charged out from the barricades to begin their assault. Watkins waited to see what tricks the kobolds had cooked up to stop them.