Chapter 41. Mechs and Contacts.


    Watkins had twelve halfling MOBS behind the barricade, and all had at least one charge in their plasma rifles. Before he dealt with the kobold ship floating helplessly out there, he was going to have to take the time to upgrade the gear for his MOBS, what he had wasn’t quite up to the task. The sounds of whatever was approaching grew louder, drawing all his attention onto the darkened hatch opening that led deeper into the station.


    The thing that stepped into view wasn’t familiar to Watkins. It was a bipedal machine, but instead of arms, it had long, dull blades sticking out. A clear armored hatch on the front revealed the kobold inside that was operating the machine. A red light strobed on the top of one shoulder and what looked like a weapon of some sort was mounted on the other shoulder.


    “What is that?” Watkins asked as the huge, mechanized creature stomped its way into the cargo hold. His MOBS didn’t have any concerns, they simply knew it was hostile and followed their programming to engage the enemy. Multiple plasma blasts slammed into the machine. Most of his MOBS had targeted the kobold operator, who seemed poorly protected inside the clear bubble canopy.


    His MOBS seemed to have the right idea as their plasma bolts easily cracked through the canopy and burned through the kobold pilot. As the kobold slumped over in death, so did the mech it was piloting. The machine pitched forward and collapsed in a heap.


    “I think those are cargo loaders of some type, the kobolds are tying to use them as weapons. They sharpened the loading arms into blades,” Lani explained.


    The design of the machines made a bit more sense now, he could see that they weren’t much more than futuristic forklifts, not a military mech of some type. It appeared the kobolds had more than one of these things as two more stomped out from the open hatch. These kobold pilots were a bit smarter than the first comrade that had led the assault.


    Turning the upper body of the mechs to the side, the vulnerable canopy was partially protected by the mech’s bulk. It seemed to hamper the kobold operators a bit as their pace slowed and they seemed to have trouble walking in a straight line while the upper portion of the mech was turned. Watkins kept waiting for them to attack with the weapon on the mech’s shoulder, but so far, they hadn’t done anything but march toward the barricade his MOBS were using as cover.


    A second, weaker volley of plasma fire lashed out, and half his MOBS used pistols since their rifles hadn’t held a full charge. The new attack was split between the two attacking mechs, and didn’t have the same impact as their first volley. A third volley, consisting of only three pistol shots was the end of Watkins’ ranged attacks for the moment.


    He pulled the MOBS back behind the barricade line closest to the boarding collar, hoping to buy time for his MOBS’ weapons to recharge another shot. The fire they had unleashed, while missing any kill shots on the kobold operators, did some damage. These machines were stout, but they were designed to take the abuse of a heavy work environment, not weapons fire.


    Both had hydraulic fluid of some sort leaking from their mechs, and the one on the left was limping as one leg wasn’t functioning correctly. A thirteenth MOBS entered the fight, running to join the other defenders behind the barricade. It fired both shots from its rifle and the one charge in its pistol before standing there to wait with its fellows.


    “Watkins, maybe we should attempt to engage those things in melee? Our MOBS should be able to crack through the canopy without much trouble, and those cargo loaders aren’t exactly nimble opponents,” Lani suggested.


    “Good idea, even if they wipe out our MOBS the loaders are too slow to make it to my core before another wave is ready to fight,” Watkins replied. He had been stuck in modern thinking, relying only on firearms and forgetting the power of a blade or hammer when needed.


    That reminded him, his drones were sitting ducks for the kobolds armed with laser weapons, but against these machines, they were more than a match. He sent the five drones waiting outside the shuttle bay into the fight. It would take them a bit to get there, but his MOBS were already charging forward, much to the shock of the kobold mech operators.


    Stolen story; please report.


    The enemy didn’t take long to react and swung the torsos of their mechs around, using the forklift-like arms of the machines to slash and crush several of Watkins’ MOBS. His troops had a variety of hand weapons to use, it seemed his fabricator automatically created a mix of them when it printed up an equipment set for his MOBS. Some only had long daggers, but others had hammers or axes to use.


    Daggers proved mostly ineffective, the canopy on the mechs might not be armored to hold up to plasma fire, but they were sturdy enough to hold off damage you might expect on a construction site. The axes and hammers created small cracks on the canopy, but they would take some time to break through. Unfortunately, the kobolds weren’t going to give them the time they needed and the weapon over the shoulder of the mechs fired up.


    They turned out to be welders, not some plasma rifle. Still, a welder was more than enough to kill one of his halfling MOBS. Even worse, the two mechs began to coordinate their attacks, using their torches and forklift arms to bash at MOBS that their partner couldn’t reach on their own.


    Some of his MOBS proved more enterprising, and one armed with a dagger began to grab onto the mech legs and saw at the exposed cables and hydraulic lines that were mounted to the mech’s chassis. One of the mechs stopped moving as it finally lost most of its hydraulic fluid. The other kept fighting, but without its ally, had no way to reach many of the MOBS swarming over it.


    The two mechs had managed to kill ten of his MOBS, but the remaining few were slowly getting the job done. Watkins’ drones also finally made it into the compartment and quickly clambered up the mechs, attacking with their tools and welding torch legs that proved more effective than the melee weapons of the MOBS. Both kobolds, seeing their mechs were no longer effective, drew a pistol from their belts and popped open the canopy, firing as they unclipped the harness that held them in.


    One pilot was taken down by a hammer blow to the face, but the other managed to blast one of the MOBS and a drone before it was dragged down and killed. Silence reigned over the cargo hold as the last mech toppled over. With reinforcements trickling in, Watkins ordered the MOBS to defend the barricade closest to the open hatchway that led deeper into the station.


    His four surviving drones had another task, they needed to begin salvage operations. Two started to cut the mechs down into manageable pieces to be dragged over to the Canon, while the other two were tasked the grisly job of recovering the remains of the fallen. There was a lot of easy biomass to recycle, and plenty of salvage from the mechs and gear of the defenders and his MOBS.


    He had one of his MOBS check out the kobold laser pistols. They were a better design than his weapons, and like the plasma pistol, would slowly recharge their magazine over the span of a few minutes. With five shots ready to go when fully charged, he had his mobs switch out their plasma pistols for the laser weapons the kobolds had been wielding.


    Watkins still liked his plasma rifles as primary weapons. They had a lot more punch than the pistols, despite their limited magazine capacity. Between the defenders at the barricades, and the mech pilots, he had enough laser pistols for each of his MOBS to have one, and an extra that he had a drone bring back to the reprocessor. It might help Watkins unlock a new schematic if he was lucky.


    It was a waiting game once more as his reinforcements filtered in. At least the delay gave the MOBS’ weapons time to fully recharge before their next push. Watkins also slotted a replacement drone into the build queue but gave it lower priority than his MOBS. He wasn’t hurting for workers, but it was better to make sure he wasn’t down one drone for longer than necessary.


    After the cargo mech counterattack, the kobolds had been quiet. They had taken a total of sixteen casualties, which made Watkins think that they were down to the dregs of their manpower, or koboldpower in this case. He also kept an eye on the kobold ship still drifting helplessly in space. So far, he could see no signs of repair drones or work crews outside the ship.


    With the damage he had done to the enemy ship, there was no way they’d get underway or have a weapon ready to fire, unless they got out on the hull to rebuild or replace what had been destroyed. The ship had its teeth pulled, but Watkins was going to keep an eye on things to make sure it didn’t become a threat again.


    “Captain Watkins, do you see that on our sensors?” Lani asked. With a lot of his attention on the boarding action, Watkins noticed the sensor returns a few seconds after Lani. Two blips had just passed the outer range of his sensors, both were charging hard toward the station.


    “I’ll bring the MOBS aboard, we’ve got company. We’ll have to deal with the station after we see who our new visitors are,” Watkins said, sending out the order to his MOBS and drones to return. He also sent more of his drones to help scour clean the detritus of the cargo bay fight. There was a lot of quick and easy salvage to recover, and he wasn’t to waste a brick of it with the potential of another space battle bearing down on him.