Chapter 44. Defend the Ship.


    The scattered pellets from the beehive weapon had no hope of breaching Watkins’ hull, and they didn’t even hurt much when they impacted. What they could do was damage one of the point defense mounts, and take out two of his maneuver thrusters. With his ability to outmaneuver the halfling ship taken away, it seemed like their decision on whether or not to let the enemy board had been decided for him.


    Watkins could still keep them at bay for a time, or probably destroy them, but another rail gun round hit, and this one hurt. It took out the forward deck gun even as his second battery fired into the mangled bow of the enemy ship once again. Checking his scanners, Watkins still couldn’t tell where the railgun was mounted. The halflings had camouflaged it well, and the weapon didn’t leave a telltale energy signature like his lasers to highlight where it was located.


    It was getting hard to keep his guns on target as the enemy drew closer. He only got the occasional angle on the bow of the enemy ship, but his shots there no longer seemed to be doing much. Only a few showed the telltale signs of a fresh hull breach, and Watkins began to wonder if they had lost all their atmosphere.


    “We’ll let them board, and then, after we kill off most of their crew, we’ll take what’s left of their ship intact,” Watkins finally decided. He had some time and pulled all his drones off other duties to begin adding additional defenses aboard the ship. All he could build were more of the retractable barricades, but he had a few tricks in mind for those.


    Powering down his guns, he tried to look as harmless as he could while the halflings maneuvered into a position to board. The halflings either weren’t fooled or were taking no chances and sent a railgun round into the second main battery, disabling the laser. He also began to distribute his forces to do the most damage and delay the enemy for the longest time possible.


    Every minute that they could delay the boarders, meant more time for reinforcements to be fabricated. While he worked, Watkins finally read the messages in his core interface that he had put off looking at. They flashed by quickly, but the last one caught his attention.


    You have engaged in combat and disabled a hostile vessel.


    25 core points have been awarded.


    You have disabled the weapons on a hostile station.


    10 core points have been awarded.


    Your MOBS have boarded a hostile station and engaged in combat with the defenders.


    25 core points have been awarded.


    You have destroyed an enemy vessel in combat.


    25 core points have been awarded.


    Your core is now ready to upgrade to Level 1.


    “Lani, my core’s ready to upgrade, any idea how long that will take. Is it something I should attempt before we’re boarded?” Watkins asked.


    “It should be about ten minutes per level, and yes, you should do so immediately. If you advance to level one, you’ll become more powerful and improve your command limit,” Lani said.


    Looking at the Halfling ship closing in on him, Watkins estimated it would take them around fifteen minutes to get into position to board, that was if he continued to try and hamper their movements as much as he could with limited propulsion. Programming in some pre-planed evasion routes so he wouldn’t stop maneuvering while upgrading his core, Watkins also issued orders to his drones, having them work on the defensive upgrades he wanted, as well as a bit of subterfuge. With that handled, Watkins focussed inward.


    It was like closing his eyes as his vision of the ship dimmed and something called out to him. There, the call was coming from a glowing orb appeared in front of Watkins. Somehow, he knew this was his core. He could see it roil with energy as it powered his mind and his vessel. Small green threads of a different sort of power ran through the core, and after concentrating on one, he realized that these were his autonomous systems in action.


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    His other energy appeared as an orange, almost liquid, light. This main portion of his energy had occasional small eruptions from the surface of his core, like solar flares on the sun. It was telling him that he was ready to expand if he wished to harness the unruly power. Watkins wasn’t quite sure what to do, but at least part of the process must have been instinctual.


    Watkins found that he could manipulate his core directly, it was similar to the process he had used to exert control over the ship. He focussed on the boundaries of his core and began to stretch them outwards. It was hard to do at first, and a bit painful, the ache it generated reminded him of a pulled muscle from his human body.


    Bit by bit, the borders of his core expanded. It wasn’t much, as far as distance went, but he could tell that there was more going on beneath his vision. His energy wasn’t just expanding its, it was also being refined and improved. He was going to be more powerful, not just because of a larger core, but also because the energy in his core was more potent.


    Watkins did fumble a bit as a concern hit him. What would happen when he needed to level and the housing his core was placed in wasn’t large enough to accommodate his new body? No, he would worry about that when the time came, for now, he pushed his concerns aside and finished the task in front of him.


    When the core expanded to its new dimensions, Watkins felt a wave of relief hit him, it was like loosening your belt another notch after a big holiday meal. With the core expansion was complete, and his focus returned to the ship around him. His sensors revealed that the halfling ship was on its final approach, and he was out of tricks to maneuver away from it.


    A quick check of his status, and Watkins was happy to find that Lani was right, and he now had additional command limit points waiting for him to use. He ordered up as many halfling MOBS as he could, watching the slow process of the fabricator as it did its job.


    Vessel Class: Gunboat.


    Vessel Name: Canon.


    Vessel Core: Jesse Watkins.


    Hull Durability: 89%.


    Core Processing Power: 100%.


    Core Durability: 100%.


    Core Level: 1.


    Core Points 105/250.


    Command Limit: 30/40.


    <ol>


    <li> Simple repair drone, Level 1 (12). </li>


    <li> Halfling Shipmate, Level 1 (18). </li>


    </ol>


    He would be able to build ten more MOBS. All of them wouldn’t be complete before his ship was boarded, but it allowed him to enact his defensive plan. The drones had been working while had been upgrading his core. A few changes were easy for Watkins to spot, the hatches on the starboard side that led to the fabrication and reprocessor compartments were sealed over and it just looked like a normal passageway.


    He planned to make a stand in the training compartment, which would hopefully keep the enemy as far from his core as he could manage. A team of three drones were just now beginning to build the defenses there, which consisted of three lines of barricades. For now, there would be no defenders there, and these defenses, as they were being built, would be manned by the new MOBS coming off the assembly line.


    Of his existing eighteen MOBS, twelve of them were defending the shuttle bay which was where the enemy would gain access to his ship. The next three were behind a barricade in front of the hatchway leading to the training compartment. All the laser pistols that he’d taken in the fight with the kobolds were given to these defenders. It would grant his troops a bit more initial firepower and, hopefully, allow them to stall the attackers for longer.


    For Watkins’ final two minions, he planned to use them in a surprise attack. They were both hidden in the galley compartment at the far aft of the ship. When the enemy was about to overwhelm the defenders at the training room barricade, he’d have the final two defenders emerge and engage the enemy from behind. They’d empty their laser weapons then duck back into the galley where a drone was preparing a small barricade for them to use.


    If the halfling invaders didn’t want the pair of MOBS to keep popping out and sniping at them from behind, they were going to have to expend time and effort to root them out. All of this, and a few tweaks to his barricades that he hadn’t tested yet, were going to grind down the enemy numbers and allow Watkins time to rebuild his forces.


    With the hatches from the fabricator and reprocessor compartments being disguised, he could use those as a hidden avenue of attack. There was the potential to have a much larger force pop out and catch the enemy between them and the defenders in the training compartment. A lot of this was going to depend on how the enemy reacted, and on how well equipped and trained they were.


    A dull clang sounded through the ship as the halfling vessel latched onto the cargo hatch. Watkins could feel their ship connect to his as the halflings tried to hack the cargo door and force it to open. This was an opportunity for Watkins. He let their hacker make some progress, but blocked them at critical times, delaying them enough to annoy them, but not enough to force them to take more drastic measures, like blasting through his hull.


    A check on the training compartment revealed that he had two newly minted MOBS were standing guard there and a third was just waiting on its gear to be fabricated. He had delayed all he could, and now it was time for his MOBS to do their part.