Chapter 42. Railgun Woes.


    Data on the approaching ships slowly fed into Watkins’ core. The two vessels were formed up close enough that their point defenses could coordinate, but far enough for evasive maneuvers without getting in each others’ way. His halfling MOBS were all aboard now, but the drones were still hauling in the last of the cargo loader mech pieces and the bodies from both his MOBS and the enemy kobolds.


    That would more than replace what he’d expended to create the multiple waves of MOBS and their equipment. Watkins tamped down his eagerness to push his forces deeper into the station to search for his lost crew, but the incoming ships were a threat he couldn’t ignore. A quick check showed that he had two missiles loaded in the torpedo tubes, and two reloads ready to go.


    A pair of drones had been tasked with missile production, and while it was a slow process currently, he needed as many as possible for the coming fight. As the last drone hauled aboard a leg from the final cargo loader mech, Watkins sealed their shuttle bay hatch and pulled away from the station. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he would unlock some type of mech from the parts he was going to reprocess.


    Once safely away from the bulk of the station, he ignited his main drives and set a course to meet the incoming threat. The two ships were coasting in, no longer under main drive power, but with plenty of velocity. Starting from a dead stop, it would take time for his limited level zero drives to get Watkins up to speed. The single sensor buoy near the station was still functional and with its data added to his ship’s sensors, he was going to get a good peek at what they were up against.


    The incoming ships probably didn’t have a firm fix on the Canon yet. He could only detect commercial grade scanners and the power they were putting out told him they weren’t working at 100% efficiency. From the kobold vessels he had seen in action, proper maintenance and replacement parts were both in short supply in this system.


    “Are you detecting any comms traffic from those two ships?” Watkins asked.


    “No, which is strange, if these were kobold reinforcements, I’d have expected them to announce themselves,” Lani said.


    “It could be they were trying to sneak in and hit us before we were ready. They might not have expected us to detect them so soon,” Watkins replied.


    Time passed as the distance between the Canon and the two mystery ships rapidly closed. All his losses, including the single drone casualty, had been replaced, and the fabricator was working on missile components. Watkins estimated that they might have one additional missile completed before they entered engagement range.


    “I don’t think those are kobold ships, look at their drive signatures,” Watkins said. They didn’t match with the kobold vessel information he had, but they were very similar to the halfling ship that had shadowed him earlier.


    “Looks like halflings, in that case, we should engage from as long a range as possible, remember, they like to close in and board,” Lani confirmed.


    “Too bad we don’t have much data on their weapon systems. All we know is that they had the beehive point defense weapons we’re using. They somehow knocked out the kobold ship’s drive during the fight, but they didn’t use a laser,” Watkins said, replaying the previous battle data.


    “There are several things that could have happened. It’s not common, but simple rail guns aren’t that hard to produce. The halflings may have cobbled one together if they didn’t have access to laser weapons as their main battery. It could also be that they don’t carry much at all in the way of weaponry, and that the kobold drive malfunctioned under the stress they were placing on it,” Lani offered.


    The mention of rail guns intrigued Watkins. He wasn’t all that sold on lasers as his main battery, and a rail gun sounded more like what he was familiar with from his time on Earth. Sure, it didn’t have the boom and recoil of a traditional gun, but it hurled a projectile and didn’t just try to burn through the foe.


    He put aside thoughts on new guns and instead concentrated on the two ships that were rapidly closing into missile range. There was little doubt that they were hostile, but he still felt the need to confirm.  At least there was a bit of time before either of them could fire.


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    “Attention vessels approaching the station, state your identity and your purpose,” Watkins ordered though his comms system.


    “You are probably wasting your time, the other halfling ship only sent one message, and that was after they had disabled their prey,” Lani said.


    There was no reply, and Watkins wasn’t idle while they waited. He targeted the vessel on the right, intending to fire both missiles at it once the range closed a bit. A single missile, especially the rather primitive versions he had access to, was likely to get sniped fairly quickly by the enemy’s point defense. Hopefully two missiles would be enough to do the job.


    They entered the outer envelope of missile range, but Watkins held his fire, the closer they could get, the better the chance of slipping at least one missile through their defenses. His main guns also slewed toward the target, also aiming at the rightmost halfling ship. Destroying one early in the fight seemed the best course of action rather than just mauling both ships and potentially leaving their weapon systems functional.


    “Missile one and two away, reloading process activated,” Watkins said as the missiles flew from the bow of his ship and the two heavy doors began to close over the torpedo tubes. The missiles looked tiny in the launch bay designed to carry much heavier ordinance, but it was all he had at the moment, and in another minute, both tubes would be reloaded.


    His missiles tracked on the target, and he waited for them to enter the enemy point defense range. When that happened, he’d activate the simple evasion patterns the missiles were capable of. His sensors flashed an urgent warning, something was heading toward them, something too fast for the point defenses to track.


    “Hold on!” Watkins said to Lani as two small objects slammed into his ship. His shields flickered and died as the twin blows slammed into his hull. It felt like two punches in the gut, but Watkins ignored the pain and began to maneuver the ship in random patterns.


    It had only taken a fraction of a second for Watkins to realize two things. The first was that it was silly to tell Lani to “hold on”, neither of them had any grasping limbs, not to mention that both he and Lani were securely mounted to the deck. The second, and more important, realization was that he had likely just been hit by the very railgun he had coveted earlier.


    “Damn, one of them hit the shield generator, it’ll be down for the fight,” Watkins said.


    “So, railguns are being used by the halflings. They’re rare, and have some significant downsides compared to beam weapons,” Lani said as the damage reports began to filter in. Like he had already realized, the only functioning wing of the shield generator was shattered by the blow, but it had slowed down the shot which subsequently bounced off his hull.


    The second shot that landed outside the CIC compartment and failed to penetrate the sophisticated armor of his hull, but it had been a close thing. Whatever they used for a projectile was imbedded in his hull, and a drone was already tasked with retrieving it for Watkins to examine. As long as he kept maneuvering in a random pattern, they enemy would be unlikely to get a bead on him again.


    “A railgun really has no range limit, and they must have fired at us as soon as we were on their scanners. At least we now know to begin maneuvers early if we think we’re possibly facing a halfling ship,” Lani said.


    The pain was fading, and Watkins was angry that he’d been hit. His anger was more at himself for being a fool and not considering the threat of a railgun being fired at him this early in the fight. By keeping the same course, he made it easy for them to score a hit. Now, they were entering the range limit of his main guns, and it was time to hit back.


    He could feel more shots whizz by, and now that he knew what to look for, his sensors would give him some warning of incoming rounds. It might not be enough time to avoid the shot completely, but he could at least use the fraction of a second to angle his armor into the best position. His core calculated the targeting of the enemy ship.


    It was now maneuvering sluggishly in an attempt to throw off the incoming missiles. Just like with their sensors, the halfling ships weren’t exactly state of the art with their maneuver drives. Watkins’ main guns fired, the beams reaching out toward the halfling ship. It was a miss, but each shot made the next one easier as his core interpreted the way the halflings maneuvered.


    One beam from the next volley burned into the halfling ship’s bow, and even at the long range, his sensors picked up the venting of some atmosphere around the strike. His foe had nowhere near the same armor protection that the Canon enjoyed. The two missiles began their final approach. He couldn’t detect any point defense fire, but with the break in incoming railgun rounds heading toward him, it was likely the halfling guns had shifted from offensive fire to point defense.


    The first missile was destroyed and lost its connection to Watkins. His second missile was just about to land when a small explosion on the halfling ship’s hull announced the firing of a beehive point defense. The missile was destroyed, but it had gotten close enough that the resulting blast opened a seam in the halfling ship’s hull. A weak weld or hasty repair gave way, and a larger bloom of atmosphere vented from the halfling ship.


    “Firing the second missile volley,” Watkins said, as the newly reloaded missiles launched out at the same target. His guns also hit the enemy hard, burning deep into the ship. The halfling vessel lost power and began to drift. There was still another ship out there, and it was getting closer with each passing second.