Derelict 3, Chapter 19.

Chapter 19.

A notifications pinged, telling Slater that the cyborg variant of his gnomes were ready. There were still some inefficiencies to work out with another pass through the process, but even this first incarnation of the gnome cyborgs would be perfect for what he needed them for. Unlike the other cybernetically improved races, the gnome were much more mechanized. Slater was a bit worried that it would leave them vulnerable to disruption beams, but tests proved they function just fine. The disruption beams, at least the ones he had encountered so far, seemed to only interrupt control centers, and given his new MOBS had flesh based minds with only some cybernetic enhancements, the beams had little effect.

“The new gnomes are looking good, Slater. Well, at least as good as a gnome can look. What can they do and what are we going to call them?” Pixi asked after the disruption beam test on his first cybernetic gnomes were complete. The gnomes looked much different than his others, in fact, they looked more like a vehicle than anything else. An armored hull walked on four, spider-like mechanical legs. The rear of the hull housed the upper torso of the gnome, and the front of the hull featured a heavy weapons mount with a shield to protect the vulnerable meaty portions of this MOBS design.

For his first gnome, Slater had added a heavy machinegun to the weapons mount, along with 1,500 rounds of ammo storage. The gnome test fired the machinegun against several targets, including kobots and cyborks. Like his previous experiences with the weapon, the effects were devastating. The reinforced bodies of his other cybernetic MOBS were torn to pieces by the heavy rounds. Recreations of the ballistic shields used by several of the contestants were also penetrated after only a few hits of the heavy armor piercing and explosive shots.

Putting the new gnome through his paces, Slater had several weapons fired against it. The hull and legs were well armored, but continuous fire would take them apart. The armored shield mounted with the weapon provided protection for the vulnerable upper torso of the gnome but was easier to penetrate than the hull or leg armor. In addition, the weapon shield only protected in the direction the gnome was facing, not anywhere else, allowing flanking forces free reign to take down his MOBS. To mitigate the danger, Slater equipped the torso with heavy body armor and a helmet. It wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t intend for this version of his MOBS to be in front line combat, they would provide support fire and take down heavier threats.

The heavy machinegun was going to be the standard loadout, but had designed the gnome to be modular, allowing Slater to swap weapons configurations at the time of construction. In a pinch, a damaged weapon could be swapped out in the field, the mount even allowed for any of a wide array of rifles to be used if heavier weapons were unavailable. Other options would need to be researched, but so far he had the heavy machinegun, a variant of the flamethrower he had seen used earlier, and a dual-mounted laser rifle. He would scale up other laser weapons to be more effective, but for now, the firepower of two laser rifles wasn’t that bad. A grenade launcher variant was also in the works, but the research capacity wasn’t available to tinker with weapons loadouts just yet.

Being a salvage hog, the cybernetic gnome MOBS would have to be used in a limited capacity where they could be the most effective. He could see both the newly added brig and the firing range as perfect spots to place his newest MOBS. He started to add a second pass into the gnome research, hoping to refine the design into something more efficient, but realized he wanted to research something to protect himself more actively. Slater had been toying with what he was calling his avatar project and pushed the research he had been using on the MOBS into his new project. After that, he would need to push the research he been spending on his MOBS back into the design of his Franklin if he wanted to finish all he imagined for the ship.

“Pixi, go ahead and name the gnomes for us,” Slater said.

“Hmm, these guys are more like mechs than cyborgs, how about we go with Gnomechs for the new MOBS?” Pixi suggested.

“Sure, that will work as well as anything else. Now we need to take another look at our MOBS placement, given the cybernetic versions are resistant to disruption beams,” Slater said. The salvage gains from his negotiation with Administrator was enough for him to build things the way he had wanted, and would also allow him to transfer most, if not all, of his regular MOBS into the cybernetic versions he had developed. Being the most resource dependent of the new designs, Slater was only going to create four of the gnomechs if he wanted to keep some reserve salvage on hand for emergencies.

This next batch of contestants were the last that could threaten his life, and more importantly, they would be the first to see his redesigned Derelict. In the entryway compartment, he left things the same, it might be a good opportunity to lull the opponents into feeling that his Derelict hadn’t changed from the previous fight. The engineering bay was next, and it also remained the same, except for the fact that the piping and conduits were finally strong enough to channel attackers into the narrow passages leading through the compartment. The narrow passages would favor the six cyborks he now placed inside, reprocessing the normal orcs that had inhabited the place previously.

The cargo hold was his next compartment. Slater liked keeping the four sniper kobots in their elevated perches at the corners of the room, but the bilge rats hadn’t performed all that well so far. For now, he left it as is, deciding only to bump up the number of mine rats to four. After the cargo hold, the challengers would face the new brig that his construction drones were putting the finishing touches on. One of the long walls housed six cells with solid walls between them. The doors to the cells were open, allowing the MOBS he would place inside to pop out from cover to engage his foes. To that end, Slater added a cybork into the first four cells and a kobot into the final two.

At the end of the long compartment, a reinforced table barricade would provide additional cover for the first pair of gnomechs. Each of the gnomechs would be equipped with the heavy machinegun, allowing them to throw considerable firepower down the long compartment. Eventually, the enemy would push past his first cells, and would likely try to use them as cover. To protect against that, and to add more danger, he made the walls of the cells collapsible. Maybe he could crush the first few to try and discourage enemies from using any of the terrain he designed as cover.

With the brig complete, Slater next looked at his barracks. Eventually deciding to go with four kobots and six cyborks to defend it. Slater also kept the pair of mine rats in there to add to the danger. The MOBS inside were also given a healthy selection of grenades to use. All of his cybernetic MOBS now carried at least one frag grenade as standard, but some that were in good position to use them were also issued the more devastating laser globe and one he hadn’t used yet aboard Sarton Station, the ripper globe.

The chow hall had four cyborks and four kobots along with a pair of grenade rats hiding in the trash cans. A half dozen normal bilge rats also scampering about looking for something to sink their teeth into. His opponents would then cross over to the med bay and while it didn’t really fit the theme, he had the for defilers inside replaced with cyborks. Between them and the pair of kobots, the smaller compartment was well defended.

In the labs he also replaced the eight defilers inside with his cyborks, keeping the four kobots to snipe at targets of opportunity. The six orcs in the armory were replaced with cyborcs and the kobot armorers now had a heavy weapons mount inside their armored weapons storage areas. One kobot could fire the heavy weapon while the other supported the cyborks with deadly accurate cover fire. Any contestants that survived to this point would face the deadliest challenge yet, his shooting range.

Laid out like the previous one on the Franklin, the shooting range required intruders to cross a long open corridor to get at the pair of armored bunkers placed inside. Within each bunker was a heavy machinegun, this time manned by two cyborks and two kobots each. Tests between the cyborks the kobots proved, to no surprise, that the kobots were more accurate but were less prolific in their fire rates than the cyborks. In the open area of this compartment, volume of fire would be critical to keep enemies suppressed, so the cyborks would be firing the heavy weapons. To support his bunkers, a pair of mine rats lurked near the entrance, ready to detonate at the first sign of intruders. To round out the defenses, Slater had two more of his gnomech’s printed up. They could maneuver from behind the cover of the bunkers to attack targets of opportunity, granting the compartment a total of four heavy machineguns.

The bridge was the final defensive compartment and the six kobots and one orc inside got the usual cybernetic MOBS upgrade. Instead of the pair of bilge rats, Slater opted for a second cybork. His resources were beginning to run low at this point, so the defenses currently in place would have to do. The only other expenditure of salvage he was willing to do now was to place more reserve ammo in strategic locations like the barracks and firing range. Whatever was left was going to go into his new avatar, Slater didn’t want to skimp on his new final defensive option once it was ready.

Without more salvage, Slater was as ready as he could be for these new challengers. Turning his attention back to the ongoing shipyard work, Slater could see that his construction drones had made some progress. The landing area had been rebuilt to accommodate the salvage that was starting to flow in, and the dock was extending further out into space. It wouldn’t be too long before he was finally able to begin hull construction. Equipped with the improved life support suits that Slater had printed up for them, a dozen Chixturax laborers were helping his drones by moving the pallets of salvage thought the airlocks and into position on the landing, freeing up his drones to focus on the construction efforts.

More research completed while he waited for the forty-eight hours to count down, the first version of his avatar was ready, and the construction drones began to make it for him. Several updates to the Chixturax ship design were also processed, but the list of things he needed to research for them was still pretty long. His own Franklin was coming along well, most of what he needed involved just scaling up designs that already existed in one form or another. The main problem would be the drone attack ships he hoped to build and before he could begin to design them, he needed a much more powerful signal booster. It was a problem he was attacking from several angles, in the hopes of having a truly long-range strike element that didn’t require him to only rely on long range missiles. With just under fifteen minutes left until the challengers arrived, his core room hatch opened again.

Into his core room walked the familiar ogre bodyguards of Administrator, but this time, instead of just protecting their master, who floated in behind them, they pushed two Chixturax into the compartment. Slater recognized them almost immediately, it was Kraxton and Bexlan. From the not too gentle way they were being handled, Slater knew the two teens weren’t just being brought there for a friendly visit.

“What’s going on now, Administrator, I would have thought that bullying two kids was beneath a being of your insight,” Slater said.

“True, and you must realize that I only do this to accommodate the request of your challengers. You see, you agreed to two minor demands from the challengers, and these two minors are their demand. These lovely Chixturax younglings will be placed into your tender care for the coming assault on your Derelict. Should the contestants make it into your core room, they wanted to personally end not only your life, but the lives of these two specifically. Some kind of personal affront, or whatnot,” Administrator said.

“Woah, letting these two kids face death, doesn’t exactly qualify as a minor demand,” Slater argued.

“True, death is no minor inconvenience, but minor can also refer to an age category, which I must admit, I hadn’t thought of when the contestants made their request. It was an amusing oversight that I will not repeat in the future. I have allowed this twist of semantics to occur as it is technically accurate and should prove quite entertaining. From your reaction, I can tell you personally care for these two and I can only hope that the desire to protect them will spur you to greater heights in your defense,” Administrator replied.

“That’s ludicrous, I don’t want them hurt to satisfy your curiosity, take them back home,” Slater argued.

“I cannot, the deal is made, and I always keep my word. If you want them safe, defend them. That is, after all, what a Derelict is made for, defending its core. This time, your core will have two additional passengers along for the ride. Good day, and good luck to you Slater,” Administrator said, making his way back out of the core compartment.

“Wait, at least give us some bonus resources or something for this,” Slater argued, hoping to get something out of this new wrinkle in his plans.

“Why, Slater, you’ve already had additional resources, two new compartments, and the disruption beam weapons as compensation. It’s not my fault if you agreed to take them without truly knowing their cost,” Administrator said as he left.

“Woah, now we have to fight off a horde of murderous contenders and babysit?” Pixi said.

“Quiet down Pixi, we’ll figure this out,”

“Figure out what, who is Pixi?” Bexlan asked. Slater kicked himself for not realizing he was saying that out loud instead of just to Pixi.

“Umm, well, Pixi is a mental construct, let’s just say it’s complicated. As far as what we have to figure out, I guess we’ve already taken care of that. You’ll stay here, safely in the core room until the contestants are dealt with. My Derelict is as deadly as ever and I don’t think these latest folks will have any more luck than all the others,” Slater replied, trying to be as reassuring as he could be.

“Well, it is kind of boring in here, don’t you have anything for us to do?” Kraxton asked.

“All the work that needs to be done is completed except for this,” Slater said indicating the construction drones assembling his avatar around the core. “I can open a link so you can watch what’s happening if you like,” Slater offered.

“Oh, great boss, give the kids a live feed to watch their potential death approach. I don’t think you’re going to be in the running for babysitter of the year,” Pixi said, adding his two cents worth.

“Sure, we love to watch the games and it might even be more enjoyable given the raised stakes for this particular match,” Bexlan said, her brother heartily agreeing with her.

“Very well, I’ll get a screen setup for you,” Slater said, ordering one of the drones to take a few moments to build a screen for them to watch from.

“Great, the creepy bug kids actually want to watch people come to kill them,” Pixi muttered. Slater’s reply was cut off as the familiar red warning lights of an impending match began to flash in his entry compartment. The contenders, whoever they were, had arrived.