Repel Boarders

by Dean Henegar

  “I kind of like having the company. You’re free to stay as long as you like. I do have to ask what you are hoping to gain from our interaction,” Slater asked, glad to have humans around but still a little suspicious of their motives.

  “I’m no diplomat so I can be blunt, Slater. Earth is going to be very curious about what you can do. Your abilities—if they’re as good as I think they are—could give us the edge we need to push back our enemies. Is that something you’re willing to consider helping humanity with?” Lieutenant Camden asked.

  It was a good question, one Slater had been wondering about since he made contact with the Havock. He knew about the guidelines with the council, but who cared about a council whose members were mostly at war with your own world? To continue to serve Earth and help defend her people was an opportunity Slater wouldn’t pass up.

  “Lieutenant, I still consider myself a member of the U.S. Navy. My vow to protect and defend the U.S., and by extension Earth itself, is one I still hold on to. I want to help, but I do have reservations and would need assurances before we go too far. There are other considerations for you to think about before working with me. Apparently, there is some mysterious council in charge of all the derelicts, and it wants to destroy me and will possibly try to destroy Earth if I help you,” Slater advised.

  Camden nodded, then held up his hand in a hold on motion as he received a comm. “Captain Slater, Captain Heinrich of the Havock would like to talk directly to you, if that’s okay.”

  “That would be fine,” Slater replied as his comm unit connected with the Havock.

  “Captain Slater, thank you for speaking with us. I will be frank with you. Earth is in dire straits and we may even lose the war if things continue as they have been. We’re facing too many foes with too much of a material advantage on us. I need to head back to Earth and report on you and the potential help you can provide. Do I have your permission to leave the research team aboard so they can work with you while you wait for our return?” Captain Heinrich asked.

  “That would be acceptable,” Slater agreed. “I can create a compartment for them to stay in, but I don’t have anything in the way of water or food for them. I can probably make some but would need the templates first. In fact, if you can send over a schematic of your ship’s plumbing and food dispenser. I can re-create them here.”

  “It’ll be on its way shortly. In anticipation, our ship’s boat was already loaded with enough supplies for an extended mission. Your ship doesn’t appear to have a jump drive or even decent propulsion. Will you need a tow to get to Earth?” the captain asked.

  “I have a way to jump, but it will send me to a random point in the galaxy. It’s currently not operational, and I’ll have to try and disable it once it’s active,” Slater advised, worried that he would jump out automatically just when he had contacted Earth.

  “Understood. There’s no time to waste, so we’ll head out immediately. I’ll leave our ship’s boat docked to your derelict and will pick it up on our return. Schematics will be on their way momentarily,” Captain Heinrich advised, ending the conversation.

  “Great, I get to bunk with a bunch of stinky rats,” Private Harris complained.

  “Is that you mouthing off, Harris? Sounds like you want to volunteer to go hump all our equipment off of the boat, doesn’t it? Snap to it, Private. Long, give him a hand,” Sergeant Gonzales barked.

  “I hope we won’t be too underfoot, Slater,” Cheng asked.

  “Not a problem,” Slater replied. “I hope you won’t mind me asking you a bunch of questions, either. For now, I’ll get your accommodations set up. The Havock just sent over the plans for plumbing and food dispensers. If you leave out some water and food samples from your rations, I can have the dispensers I build replicate them. In the meantime, I’m going to add a pair of compartments for your team to stay in. Excuse me for a moment while I work on that.”

  Slater went to work as the humans unloaded crate after crate from their vessel. For now, the pilots would stay on the ship’s boat; they were still a little concerned about Slater and all his MOBS running around the derelict. They would also help keep an eye on things since the boat had better sensors than Slater’s derelict. As for the accommodations he could provide, Slater had quite a bit of salvage from the remainder of the admiral’s derelict. He built them two compartments, setting one up as a series of small apartments with their own bathing facilities. The upgraded furnishings copied over from the admiral’s ship helped him make the place look nice.

  He built the new compartments in line with his original plan, placing them in front of his core room and keeping the well-armed soldiers between his core and any threats that might show up. The construction went quickly. Slater was forced to keep everyone cooped up in his core room while the drones and nanobots finished the buildout. The plumbing system took a bit of trial and error, but in the end, he was able to create a closed system that recycled everything and had no waste. He would refrain from telling them that even their waste would be reprocessed into its base elements and reused in the food dispensers. That part was a necessary feature with his limited resources, but it even grossed him out a bit. It took a few hours to complete and he was excited to unveil the new housing to the humans.

  “Your quarters are ready,” Slater happily advised.

  “That was fast. What did you do? Weld a bunch of panels together and stuff it with rats?” Harris complained.

  Gonzales growled at him, shutting up the whiny private.

  “I think the rats are cool. They don’t smell, don’t eat, and don’t go to the bathroom. They’re the perfect pets,” Long said. The private had finally cornered one of the bilge rats, which reluctantly allowed the soldier to pet it.

  “Wow, this is way more than I expected,” Doctor Cheng said as they entered the living quarters. Each of them had their own room with all the amenities. The beds were just normal navy racks, but Slater was able to find comfortable linens in his furnishings tab. The group walked into the second compartment, which he had set up as a combined recreation room and mess hall. The food and beverage dispensers were ready to go, along with a navy regulation dining table and chairs welded to the floor. The rec room had a few sofas and tables to relax at, but unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to find anything to entertain them other than a few games.

  “Grub’s good. How long until we run out?” Harris asked after selecting a burrito from the food dispenser.

  “We won’t run out anytime soon. It turns out I have enough resources I can load into the food dispenser to last a lifetime,” Slater replied, wisely not choosing to disclose the source of his “resources.”

  “I thank you for all this, Captain Slater. I was expecting to have to sleep on the deck in a sleeping bag,” Camden said.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have some maintenance duties to attend to. If you need anything, just speak up. I can hear you from anywhere on the ship,” Slater advised, intending to check on his research while the humans squared away their gear and settled in.

  “Hold up. The boat has a contact on its scanner,” Camden advised.

  “Isn’t it just the Havock,” Slater asked?

  “No, the Havock jumped out while you were making the compartments for us. We didn’t want to interrupt you while you were working,” Cheng advised as the lieutenant spoke with the pilots.

  “We’ve got missiles inbound! Two tracking for the ship’s boat. Point defenses are lighting up,” Camden said, giving them all an update.

  “Get the pilots inside now!” Slater shouted as he switched his view to the hull, watching as the point-defense turret swung around and began spitting fire out into space. An explosion off in the distance let him know that at least one of the missiles was down. A second and much closer flash indicated that the last missile had been downed.

  “They’re going to stay up top and give us cover with the point-defense gun. You don’t seem to have any defenses on your hull,” Camden said.

  �
�That’s because I don’t need any. My hull is impenetrable to anything short of an entire battle fleet, from what I understand,” Slater told the lieutenant. The point defenses started up again as Slater split his attention between the hull and the humans in the mess hall compartment, an ability he just now realized he possessed.

  “Two more missiles inbound. The approaching vessel appears to be a variant of an orcish raider,” Camden advised.

  One of the missiles was taken down by the point defenses. The gun kept hammering away until the bright flash of an explosion enveloped his hull, the ship’s boat disintegrating in the blast. The derelict rocked a bit from the hit, but Slater could tell that the nanobots had already healed any damage done by the missile.

  “We’ve lost them,” Slater said as Camden tried unsuccessfully to raise the now-dead pilots on comms. Slater was stunned; two humans had died so soon after he found them. Was this the fate of the others inside his derelict?

  The clanging sound of a ship attempting to dock with the derelict knocked Slater from his stupor.

  “They’re boarding. Let’s kill them all,” Slater told the humans.

  — 18 —

  Slater was angry; it was good to feel emotion. It was something he hadn’t experienced much of as a derelict. He wanted a piece of whoever destroyed the ship’s boat and killed the pilots. He quickly added the five humans aboard as friendlies and then set his derelict to hostile, the traps and MOBS now active and awaiting the invaders.

  “Captain Slater, what can we do to help?” Lieutenant Camden asked.

  Slater thought about where best to employ the human soldiers, wanting to place them where they might do the most good with minimal risk. He felt it was best to let his derelict wear down and damage any enemies before Camden and his men had to face them, whoever the enemy was. The choice of where to place the humans turned out to be an easy one.

  “Lieutenant, head past the bridge and then the barracks. After that, you’ll arrive at the shooting range. I think you will find that compartment to your liking,” Slater told them.

  The entry hatch hadn’t opened yet, so he had a few seconds to move things about. He sent four of the kobolds and the taskmaster from the shooting range to the next compartment, the engineering section. The other four kobolds he moved back into the barracks.

  “Can you open the hatches so I can send my recon drones out, Slater?” the lieutenant asked as the sergeant and the two privates hauled a couple of heavy crates toward the shooting range.

  “Unfortunately, every hatch has to be opened manually, and I don’t think you want your drones trapped in a single room. If you’d like, I can link my nanobot feed from the interior hull sensors over to you. That way, you can keep tabs on the enemy and not risk your drones,” Slater advised. While he could see from any point of view on his ship, he selected a single point from each compartment and sent that out to the humans. The soldiers all had display monitors built into their helmets, and the doctor had a tablet-like device she could view from.

  “I got the feed. Well done, Slater. Permission for Doctor Cheng to wait in the core room with you,” Lieutenant Camden asked.

  “Of course, if that’s okay with the doctor,” Slater replied.

  “I’d be glad to join you, Slater. I’m willing to fight if I have to, but my navy boot camp was a long time ago and I have to admit that I haven’t kept up on my firearms skills. It might be best if I stay out of the lieutenant’s way,” Doctor Cheng replied. Camden then hustled out of their rec room to meet up with the others in the shooting range.

  Slater’s attention shifted to the exterior hull sensors, and he looked for the first time at an orc vessel. The ship was around the size of the kobold vessel that had docked with his derelict earlier. The kobold ship wasn’t very impressive, but the orc vessel looked like it was made for war. It was a straightforward design, essentially a big cylinder with blocky protrusions. Gun turrets sprouted from various parts of the vessel almost as if the orcs had welded them onto any surface that had enough space to house them.

  His attention was drawn back to the entry compartment as the hatch clanged open. In what must be a play from Boarding Derelicts 101, the first thing through the hatch was a pair of drones. This time each drone was spherical in shape and the size of a basketball. The things rolled about, looking for any threats. He didn’t think they were heavy enough to trigger any of his pit traps, but with a twang, the first tripwire dart in the entry corridor flew harmlessly over the top of a drone and slammed into the side of the passageway, shattering upon impact with the impossibly tough surface. The second tripwire trap did a bit better. The dart slammed from the ceiling and imbedded itself in one of the rolling contraptions. The drone sputtered and smoked as it tried to roll, its movement blocked by the dart sticking out of it.

  Figures now began to drop from the hatch and into his derelict. The first several to drop down were exactly what he expected from an orc ship—orcs. They were easily seven feet tall and muscular. The orcs wore a hodgepodge of mismatched armor and gear, making them look like something from a bad post-apocalyptic movie. They each wielded various ranged weapons that Slater didn’t recognize, and all of them had at least one melee weapon. Large axes seemed to be a favorite.

  “Stupid dwarf! You said the entry hall was clear. The cost to fix the drone is coming out of your share,” the largest of the orcs yelled as he hurled the damaged drone back into his ship. A couple more orcs dropped down, as well as a familiar face—Quint the dwarf had returned.

  “Shut yer yap, Krogtog. You had to expect the derelict would grow a bit since I called you. It was a crummy tripwire trap, something a dwarf child could easily avoid,” Quint said to the orc leader, who towered over him at nearly double his height.

  “Yeah, but you said this was a little six-compartment derelict. This one has thirteen compartments and enough extra salvage on hand that it can afford to trap the entry passage,” the big orc replied.

  “You tellin’ me your crew can’t take on a lousy thirteen-compartment baby derelict? Should I find another crew that can?” Quint asked.

  The big orc growled at the brazen dwarf. “And you need to stop running your mouth or I’ll toss you out of the airlock. You need me and my boys to clear this dump. Just try to remember that we don’t really need you so much anymore now that we’ve found the derelict. Shut your mouth and let’s get this done. I have a buyer all lined up for the dead core,” the big orc replied.

  Quint must have realized he was skating on thin ice and only nodded in reply.

  “Get moving,” Krogtog ordered his orcs. There were now eight of them, including Krogtog and the dwarf. A pair of orcs led the way, walking straight toward the hatch leading to the garbage room.

  “Hold up. We got another trap here in the wall,” Quint said. He had spotted Slater’s hidden compartment trap.

  Knowing their presence was blown, Slater activated the six traps. The doors to the compartments slammed open, and the bilge rats attacked the nearest foe. To their credit, the orcs reacted quickly. Their rifles turned out to be a much better version of the laser rifle that his own troops employed. With a flurry of shots, all six rats were down, with only one lucky rat being able to tear a chunk from Quint’s boot but unfortunately missing any of his toes.

  “Pathetic,” Krogtog grunted. Slater wasn’t sure if the orc meant his trap, his MOBS, Quint, or all of the above.

  Unlike the defilers, the orcs opened the hatch set to hard with little effort, the setting not even slowing them down. The lead pair of orcs swept the garbage room. Almost immediately, one of the orcs raised his rifle and fired into a pile of refuse, hitting and killing the rat crouching there. A second later, the other orc found his own target, dropping a second rat. The remaining rats realized they couldn’t hide and tried to rush the pair of orcs. Before they could close the distance, more fire lashed out from the other orcs that were even now entering the room, killing all of Slater’s bilge rats. Next, the orcs would face his cargo hold c
ompartment.

  “Let’s pick up the pace. This place is as easy as the little dwarf said it would be,” one of the orcs grumbled while walking quickly toward the hatch that opened into the cargo hold compartment. In his rush, the orc didn’t spot the pit trap set in the middle of the room. With a grunt, the orc fell onto the waiting stakes below. A pig-like squeal drew the other orcs to the edge of the pit, where they laughed at the unfortunate victim of the trap. Krogtog dropped a small pack down to the wounded orc and waved the rest on. The pack must have been a medical kit, giving the orc in the pit something to treat his injuries with. After a few moments, the orc hobbled his way out of the pit, favoring one of his legs, which now sported a bloody bandage wrapped around it.

  The cargo hold room only delayed the attackers slightly. Once the hatch opened, Slater’s kobolds fired off a volley. Only one of the shots hit its target, failing to penetrate the orc’s armor. His MOBS ducked and waited for their weapons to recharge when the rats jumped down on their foes. The orcs blasted apart the rats and picked off his kobolds. With the room cleared, the orcs proceeded to the next hatch.

  The hatch to the mess hall opened and the first orcs charged through. The lead orc met the combined fire of the six kobolds and one taskmaster in the room. Four of the laser bolts from Slater’s kobold’s hit. Only two burned through the orc’s armor, wounding but not taking him out of action. The follow-up blast of the blunderbuss had more of an effect, the blast driving several shards of metal deep into a wounded orc’s eye socket. The wounded orc squealed in pain, returned fire, and then fell to the floor. The remaining orcs charged in and opened fire, easily taking down his kobolds who were still waiting for their weapons to finish recharging.

  “Hey, Slater, why did your kobolds only fire one shot and then just stand there looking stupid?” Lieutenant Camden asked.

  “Yeah, and why was that one kobold using some kind of relic from the Revolutionary War?” Private Harris chimed in. His comment elicited an angry growl from Sergeant Gonzales.