Derelict 3, Chapter 36.

This chapter finishes up Derelict 3. I'll continue on with War Core full time now, at least until book 1 is finished. There may be more Derelict in the future, but other projects will take priority as I work on some stories I've been wanting to dig into for a while.


Chapter 36.

“Here they come, kill them all, marines!” Diaz shouted as the hatchway to the rifle range collapsed under the monstrous assault of the Gargonth’s forces. The attackers were met with a wall of fire as the heavy weapons in the bunkers poured death through the open hatchway. Slater would have expected howls of pain or shrieks of anger from the various attackers, but like his MOBS, these creatures were eerily silent in their relentless attack.

There was a lull in the firing when the machineguns had to reload. Each belt held three hundred rounds, and the high cyclic rate of fire ate through the ammo as quickly as the ammo ate through the target. The rifle-armed defenders tried to take up the slack, but the smaller rounds didn’t have the same stopping power, and the first few monsters forced their way inside the compartment. They were met with fire from the ceiling-mounted guns as well as blasts from the mines around the hatchway.

With their reloads complete, the machinegun teams got back to work, their overwhelming fire keeping the enemy at bay, killing them until the dead clogged the hatchway. The monsters now had to drag away corpses before continuing their assault, further delaying them. Knowing the hatchway was a death trap, the invaders began to claw at the bulkheads separating the two compartments. Slater’s Derelict had extremely tough bulkheads, the hatchways were the weak point by design, a way to funnel attackers through his ship along the path he wanted them to follow.

Somehow, the claws and acidic spit of these monsters as able to damage the core reinforced bulkheads. His forces were able to fight off the horde when they were trying to come in through a small area, but could they hold off multiple breaches? Shifting his focus for a moment, Slater watched the progress his MOBS were making aboard the Gargonth vessel. They were around half the distance to their target; their speed was picking up as the number of defenders started to thin. It looked like they had burned through everything that the Gargonth had thrown in front of them, showing Slater that the monster did have a limit to its forces.

His MOBS were down by a third of their number, but the lessening resistance allowed his construction drones to refill their ammo supply and make some minor repairs to some of the MOBS that were damaged. They should hit the enemy with full magazines and with overwhelming numbers. Slater was also facing overwhelming numbers, the boarding had slowed a bit, but hadn’t stopped completely. The bulkhead between the Gargonth forces and the rifle range was also getting close to failing.

“Slater, we have comms from Admiral Molina, his fleet has entered the system,” Guzman said. He and a few of the crew were operating makeshift command stations that Slater had created in the recreation room.

“Put him through,” Slater said.

“Commodore Slater, we’ve arrived, how can we help, it looks like you’ve got a mess on your hands,” Molina said.

“This is a mess, but I might need some help to hold off the boarders that are coming in through those tentacle things,” Slater said.

“We can deal with that, my ships will take care the tentacles and then my marines can come in and take some of the pressure off,” Molina offered.

“Excellent, approach from directly aft of the Franklin, all the enemy guns facing that direction have been silenced. Hurry, things are starting to get hot here,” Slater said.

The SAC flotilla was on their way and it wouldn’t take long for them to arrive. Already, Molina was launching drones to attack the connecting tentacles. He turned his focus back to the fight aboard Franklin, but not before hearing Admiral Molina begin to coordinate with the surviving ships of Earth’s defense fleet. Maybe, even if Slater failed, the remaining forces could overcome the badly injured Gargonth. Slater transmitted the location of the Gargonth mind to the others, embarrassed that he had forgotten about the remaining defenders. He had fallen prey to tunnel-vision, thinking that he was the only thing that could fight the enemy, not even considering that the survivors of the earlier battle could still contribute.

With the screech of tortured metal, a bulkhead gave way under the Gargonth assault. A second path into the rifle range was now open, the attackers losing no time as they poured into the breach. One of the bunkers shifted fire to the new threat, supported by the ceiling-mounted weapons and any nearby mines. They were holding for now, but then a second breach was made, dividing the fire of his defenders even further. The four gnomechs that his construction drones had been working on were now complete, and they marched into the shooting range just as the monsters began to make headway.

His drones continued to create MOBS, his capacity to control them freed up by the casualties his forces onboard the Gargonth ship had taken. Creating new MOBS took time, though, and he didn’t know how much he had remaining. Even with the firepower of the four gnomechs, they were barely keeping the foe at bay. Mines and grenades were being depleted at a rapid pace, and the ceiling-mounted guns were quickly burning through their available ammo supply. The construction drones would have no chance of reloading them in the crush of battle.

It was time for Slater to enter the fight. He was determined to go down swinging, and there was no way he was going to hide behind the human crew as they fought to the death against the Gargonth. Activating his avatar, Slater stomped his way toward the rifle range. His MOBS were almost to the Gargonth brain, he just needed to hold the foe back a bit longer.

“Boss, you sure about this?” The Pixi part of his mind asked.

“Yes, we’re joining the fight, the only way we're going to buy more time is with the avatar’s firepower,” Slater replied.

“I got you, and hey, look at that,” Pixi said, directing Slater’s attention to the boarding tentacles. Dozens of SAC attack drones were attacking, tearing through the flexible hide that made up the biological boarding tubes. It didn’t take long before they were severed, and the flow of attackers stopped. Sadly, his ship was already stuffed full of Gargonth, thousands by his latest count. Close behind the drones, Slater could see a line of shuttles approaching, the marines had arrived.

“Is that you, Slater?” Captain Guzman asked as Slater walked through the recreation center on the way to the battle.

“It’s me. I’ve got to show these marines how it’s done,” Slater said with confidence, not letting his voice betray the fear he felt. These Gargonth were able to hack their way through the bulkheads, which meant they were also able to hack through the armor on his avatar. With no reason to wait, Slater opened the hatch to the rifle range, railguns charged and ready for action.

The loud thrum of the railguns firing was heard over the cacophony of the battle raging inside the compartment. Slater’s first two rounds slammed through the attackers pouring through one of the breaches in the bulkhead. The kinetic energy of the rounds tore apart anything in their way. Passing through multiple bodies, the rounds lost some of their momentum, but still had enough kinetic energy to ricochet off a bulkhead in the other compartment and slam back into more of the Gargonth monsters. The two shots had killed over a score of attackers, and Slater was just getting started. In between railguns rounds, the coax-mounted machineguns were used to hose down the seemingly endless supply of enemies.

It seemed like hours passed as Slater and the human crew fought off the relentless Gargonth hordes. Checking his chronometer, it turned out it had only been twenty minutes. His fire was slackening as the onboard ammo for the avatar ran low. A drone shuffled its way inside the rifle range to reload him. Slater and the gnomechs were patrolling behind the line of bunkers, providing what support they could. The overhead turrets had run dry and most of the command-detonated mines were gone. He still had quite a few grenades hidden away in their concealed locations in the ceiling, but they wouldn’t last once the enemy pushed through with enough forces.

Given the lack of enemy ranged firepower, which mostly consisted of poorly aimed streams of corrosive goop, Slater tasked his drones to reload the two closest turrets. Being in the corners furthest away from the attackers, they were safe for the moment. The two in the corners nearest the torn apart bulkhead were already destroyed. One of his drones was working almost non-stop to haul ammo out to the bunkers, they were burning through it faster than he had thought possible. All his remaining construction drones were now needed just for ammo production, forcing him to halt the new MOBS he had wanted to build. A pair of cyborks and a kobot had been completed before he had called a halt to construction, they waited in the recreation center with the other humans and Chixturax. If he took casualties among the defenders here, they would come in to replace them, but the bunkers were at capacity and any more defenders would just lead to them getting in each other’s way.

“Commodore Slater, permission to come aboard,” A voice over the general comms channel asked. Outside the Franklin, Slater could see shuttles lined up at each of the breaches in his hull. A flexible boarding collar had been attached and the marines inside were ready to go.

“Permission granted, be careful, the ship is stuffed with these monsters. We’d appreciate any assistance you can give,” Slater said as SAC marines poured aboard. Each shuttle carried about twenty-five marines, and there was a queue forming outside each boarding collar as more shuttles waited to unload. The only problem was the boarding collars weren’t very efficient, and it took time for the empty shuttles to switch out with new ones.

The first marines, pushed out into the nearby compartments, taking a defensive stance until more forces could arrive. It wouldn’t do to have them overrun before they were ready. Despite the marines not attacking just yet, the Gargonth boarders seemed to sense them and many of the attackers at the Gargonth mob turned and charged toward the newest threat. The SAC marines were hard-pressed almost immediately but fought bravely to buy time for reinforcements to arrive.

The fight at the boarding hatches was outside his control, so Slater turned to more immediate problems. More of the bulkhead separating the Gargonth from the rifle range collapsed, allowing even more attackers to flow inside the chamber. His defenders were slowly losing ground as many of the automated defenses were going offline. Mines and the overhead grenades were expended, and now it was only the firepower of the defenders holding them back.

Looking over to the Gargonth ship, Slater could see his forces were closing in on the enemy's brain. As they neared their target, the passageways filled with a final batch of defenders. These monsters were larger and more powerful than the ones fighting aboard the Franklin, almost like a royal guard of sorts. His MOBS wasted no time in laying into the defenders, fighting step by step as they approached the chamber their target was located in. More of his forces were down, the Gargonth royal guard was tough, but his MOBS’ superior firepower was up to the challenge.

The second wave of marines boarded Franklin and with their numbers reinforced, they began to push back the Gargonth. Sadly, they were a long way from Slater and there were a lot of Gargonth creatures between them. Any help was welcome as his forces were beginning to wane. One of his gnomechs was taken down by a lucky hit, a stream of acid hitting it right in the face. Normally, he would have one of his drones repair it in the field, but the incoming fire was increasing, and his drones were already taking losses just to shuttle over more ammo.

A marine and a navy crewman in one of the bunkers were also down, his kobot and one of the cyborks taking their places. Slater had also taken a couple of hits; the acidic slime was capable of eating into his reinforced armor. None of the damage he had taken was serious, but it was a further reminder that the Gargonth could hurt, and even kill him. Another gnomech went down at the same time one of the bunker machineguns had its barrel meltdown from the continuous fire. A barrel change took far too long, so the crew inside resorted to their personal weapons, further reducing the volume of fire, and allowing the Gargonth to close in.

Flames poured on the lead Gargonth as the flamethrower in the center bunker went into action. It ran for fifteen seconds before its fuel supply was exhausted, allowing the horde of attackers to make it to the bunker itself. Slater marched forward shifting his fire to the new threat. The bunker was armored enough to withstand a considerable pounding, but at the rear of the bunker, a thin metal hatch allowed entry. Slater had to keep the enemy away from that hatch, their powerful claws would pry it open in no time.

Flames erupted from the other bunkers as the range closed. His final cybork charged from the rec room into the rifle range, adding its fire and blades to the mix. Right behind it, the remaining crew advanced, firing as they counterattacked. Guzman must have realized that these were the final moments of this fight and every weapon was needed. Slater pushed forward, firing his machine guns and smaller weapons, the railguns were too dangerous with so many friendlies nearby. Mines detonated on the hull of his avatar, showering attackers with bits of steel. He slowly rotated the avatar’s torso, bringing the unfired mines to bear even as he continued to fire everything he could.

Back on the Gargonth ship, Slater could see his MOBS breaching the door into the final chamber. They were in, fighting their way to their target. The Gargonth mind was a huge fleshy structure the size of a city bus. A hard carapace protected the Gargonth brain, while openings in the walls shot out more of the acidic slime at his forces. Royal guards charged in, a final dozen of them had been hiding inside the mind chamber. His MOBS ignored the attacks, focusing every weapon they had on the brain itself. Chunks of the hard shell were blasted off, each round digging deeper toward the foe.

“My forces are at the Gargonth brain, we just need to hold on a bit longer!” Slater shouted.

Pain seared in his back as claws began to dig into his avatar. Construction drones poured into the compartment trying to protect and repair, him, but they fell in droves to the Gargonth monsters who were whipped into a fury as they sensed the threat inside the brain chamber. Only by killing Slater could the Gargonth survive. All the attackers turned their focus away from everything but Slater, piling on him even as the humans, Chixturax, and his construction drones tried in vain to protect him. Slater's weapons went offline one by one, but he wasn’t going to quit, using the damaged barrels as clubs to smash and crush any attacker he could get to. One of his legs gave way, the other three were unable to support the weight of the avatar and the Gargonth monsters holding onto it.

A small explosion next to him blew a few attackers off his avatar as Pixi’s stealth rat made its contribution to the fight. One of the railguns was torn from his body and a claw dug deep, seeking his core. The claw withdrew, tearing away more of Slater’s protection and leaving his core exposed. He rotated his torso away before the expected follow-up attack could land. But the attack never landed, in fact, all the Gargonth monsters seemed to slow, their movements jerky and hesitant.

It was the Gargonth brain; his MOBS had begun to crack through the protective carapace and now their rounds were hitting the soft flesh of the Gargonth mind. The pulsing surface poured a clear goo as more fire bore in, one of his cyborks now close enough to hack slices from the brain with his arm blades and axe. With a final shudder, Slater could feel the Gargonth mind expire. The pressure he had felt in his core was gone and the attackers dropped to the deck or milled about in confusion as their connection was cut, dying without the Gargonth mind to direct them.

A construction drone pulled the corpses off Slater’s avatar, starting repairs as he tried to figure out what to do next. The humans exited the bunkers, joining the survivors who had rushed from the recreation room to join the fight. His MOBS still aboard the Gargonth ship were ordered to destroy weapons mounts and anything else that might be critical, just in case the mind could rebuild itself elsewhere on the ship. Slater didn’t think it was possible, he could feel the mind shatter just before it died, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.

“Slater, did we win?” Bexlan asked, looking down at him. The Chixturax had lost an arm in the fight, but her innate curiosity had overcome her pain for the moment.

“I think we just did, the Gargonth is gone,” Slater said.

“Yes, this threat is dealt with,” Guzman said. The old man looked worse for wear, bearing several small wounds.

“This threat is done, but I’m sure something else will pop up eventually. Hopefully, humanity will join together once more when it does,” Slater said.

“We will, those of us who survived this fight will anyhow. In the years to come, who knows? Let’s leave the troubles of another day for their appointed time. For now, Commodore Slater, allow me the honor of being the first to welcome you back to Earth, the first to welcome you home,” Captain Guzman said.

Slater lay there inside his avatar, saying nothing, just relishing this moment. Hundreds of years had passed since that fateful day when his ship had been destroyed, turning him into a Derelict. It was odd, he had waited for this for so long, that it didn’t seem real. Slater had no idea what the future held for him. He had no idea what humanity might expect from him. But as Guzman had said, those were worries for another time. He looked at the bedraggled survivors, mourning their losses and helping each other. For this moment they were his crew, and he was content.

He had finally made it back. He was home.