Leaping from the cargo hold Ethan ran to the blast door that led out of the ship. By the time his fingers gripped the wheel, however, he’d reconsidered and run back the other way. Hopping over the hole in the floor, he spun the wheel on the blast door that led toward the bridge and darted through it. They were about to be attacked, he knew that deep in his bones, but there was no reason for him to have to do all the fighting now was there.

“Luna, we tripped the red dungeon’s defenses while working on the cargo hold. I need you to send out your forces to defend the ship.” Forces might have been a bit of an exaggeration, considering she only had three goblins, one war dog, and… well who knew how many stoats. Regardless, there were enough of them that he shouldn’t even have to participate. Just point the swarm of vicious stoats at the enemy and wait for the blood to flow.

I am afraid that isn’t going to be possible, Captain.

Luna scrolled the words on the air without any preamble.

I have been hoarding my reserves for the expansion of my domain. If I send out my stoats to deal with a threat, you should have known to prepare for. Especially after triggering the red dungeon’s domain last time, I would only be hurting myself. I suggest you find a means to deal with this problem yourself.

“Damn it Luna,” Ethan swore, looking around the room for the marble sized orb so he could shake it violently, but not being able to see it through the excess of plant growth. “What if I get killed out there? How will you ever get off this rock?”

I think Ensign Leo Davis would make a perfectly acceptable replacement. Especially considering he is skilled in ship repair.

Ethan gaped in shock at that answer. He wanted to scream at the damned selfish core. Again, however, he managed to reign himself in.

“Look, Luna… I’m not asking for everything you have,” he said after a breath, trying to compromise with the greedy ship core. “I just need some help tipping the balance. I will do most of the work, you only have to help keep them all from ganging up on me… If you can’t at least meet me halfway here, then I’ll open the hatches throughout the ship, and you can deal with them once they reach the bridge all on your own. How much damage to your reserves would a fight in here cause I wonder?”

You wouldn’t dare. I am your only means off this asteroid.

“A threat I just used against you, which you completely disregarded. Don’t test me on this Luna, it’s not like it would kill you anyway. Just set you back a few days. I’m one hundred percent willing to risk that small an inconvenience in order to stay alive.

Fine, Captain. You win this round. Here, take the war dog. It is next to useless to me anyway. Produces the same amount of mana as a pair of stoats and takes up far more space and requires more food too… and… these fifteen, no ten stoats. I already know if I give you more than you need, you’ll just feed them to your terminal human companion. This is all you are getting, so don’t push me. Anymore and I might as well just fight them myself.

Ethan felt a… sort of popping in his mind. Blinking in shock, he searched around in his head to figure out what had happened. After a minute, he found the connection between himself, and the ship born creatures had changed. Where before, it was just a small niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he could influence the creatures if he pushed. Well, now it felt like the creatures… belonged, to him. Like… like if the connection between himself and the animals had been in neutral before, it had now been shifted into gear.

“What… just happened?” He asked, following the connections, like eleven threads that extended from his mind out into the chaos of the bridge. Each thread ending in a stoat or war dog, which was now outlined in his vision. It looked like they were glowing from the inside and were simplicity itself for him to pick out of the massive swarm of the little stoats.

I cut the ties binding them to me. Although they are still my creatures and will provide me passive mana while in my domain, I can no longer control them or actively drain their mana. The connection has been transferred to you in its entirety. They are yours now. I suggest you use them wisely because I won’t be giving you any more. At least not for situations where you should have already had a plan in place such as this one.

“Wow, thank you Luna. This will really help.” Ethan said, mentally commanding the stoats to run around in circles, doing back flips as they went. While he commanded the war dog to come over to him. It was looking pretty rundown, after having its mana drained on the hour, every hour, since it had been created. The ship didn’t answer, seeming to really be done with him for the time being. That was ok though, if the last time was any indication, he really was on a time crunch.

Commanding his new followers to keep up, Ethan turned and ran back down the corridor. As he hopped over the hole in the floor, Ethan glanced down. What he saw in that brief glimpse was Nine, frantically shoving a crate of emergency plates towards where the kid was trapped outside the barrier. That was good at least, the pair of them could keep working on the cargo hold while he dealt with the threat. It would be safer for them where they were. On the heels of that thought came another one. Why was he putting himself in harm’s way to protect those too practical strangers, and that greedy ship core?

Blowing through the blast doors in quick succession, he was outside and didn’t have any more time to contemplate what he thought he was doing. There was only time for doing now. Ethan’s heart sank when he heard the howls coming from within the forest. He’d been right, the dungeon had felt him, and had sent out a hunting party. Glancing around frantically, he reviewed his options. The hatch he stood in front of was still a good five feet off ground level, but there was no protection against incoming war dogs. In fact, there wasn’t any protection to be had anywhere in the trench the ship had dug on its way up here.

Making a mental note to build a protective wall between the back door of the ship and any attacking foes, Ethan decided his best bet for survival was to copy his strategy from before. With a mental command too his creatures, a command that came as simply as breathing, Ethan ordered them on top of the ship. They’d meet the charge up there, and hopefully the attacking war dogs would follow after their predecessors and slide right off the other edge of the ship.

Howls split the air again, and Ethan felt a stirring desire through the link he shared with the war dog, Luna had just bequeathed him to howl back. Ethan frowned, mentally suppressing the dog’s desire and took a closer look at the link he shared with the animals.

Excitement, hunger, wonder at being outside the metal cave for the first time. The taste of the new air… and fear at the sound of approaching predators. Ethan groaned, realizing in that instant that the ship core created creatures were actually living, feeling, entities. Entities that knew excitement, pain, and fear. Shaking his head at the newfound knowledge, Ethan groaned again. He’d intended on ordering his creatures to swarm the enemies, just like they had before, and while they were distracting the attackers, he’d brain them with his club. Now though, there was no way he’d feel comfortable sending the animals into the meat grinder.

Turning his attention back to the rocky trench that led into the forest, Ethan firmed his resolve. They were created as tools. Just because they had feelings didn’t mean he could sacrifice himself to keep them safe. They were designed to do that for him after all. No, the best he could do was not send them to their certain deaths. He’d employ them strategically, and hopefully they’d all come out of this alive. A hope that was almost instantly dampened when the first rider came into view.

He was huge, at least compared to the standard goblin riders Ethan had grown accustomed to. Probably five feet tall, if he hadn’t been seated on the back of a pony sized war dog, that itself was covered in thick bony plates that looked to be growing right out if the creature’s fur. The rider, a hobgoblin if his gaming knowledge could be relied upon, was also armed and armored. Where the normal goblins dressed in rags and were armed with rough weapons of stone, wood, and rough hammered iron, the hobgoblin wore boiled leather, with bone plates, over what looked like a tanned hide. Ethan was reminded of buckskin, though he doubted the creature that hide had come from had been a deer.

Over his shoulder, where the goblins were so filthy it was hard to tell, this rider was most definitely a male, the rider carried an axe that looked like it had been lifted right from a fantasy game. Two handed and with a head that looked far too broad to be practical. Yet the hobgoblin wielded it with ease. Behind the hobgoblin, and its bone armored mount, came the normal complement of four goblin riders. They looked rather small and considerably less formidable then they had to Ethan before he saw the hobgoblin.

“Come on now, Ethan,” he muttered under his breath to keep up his nerve. “He might be two feet taller than the others, but he’s still more than a foot shorter than you.” Firmly concentrating on that fact, Ethan saw as the riders neared that despite how big the hobgoblin had looked initially, he really wasn’t a giant.

With a few mental commands, Ethan ordered the stoats to gather off the ship, and to hid themselves in the rocks that were piled almost to the roof, where he stood. The stoats were ambush fighters, plain and simple. If he left them out in the open, they’d be trampled to death. At least now he could keep them in reserve for when they’d be most valuable. As for the war dog, he ordered it to trot up the length of the ship. To get near too, but not go over, the invisible line that was the red dungeon’s domain and crouch down out of sight.

The war dogs were at their most dangerous when they had a running head start. They’d charge in and tackle their prey, worrying their flesh like a pet dog worried a chew toy. So, just like the stoats, Ethan set his war dog up for the greatest chance of success. Which, incidentally, left Ethan standing alone at the back of the ship, to meet the attacking riders. With a sigh at how easily the feelings of a rodent had changed his tactics, Ethan pulled the stone headed hammer from his belt.

His hand hesitated over the butt of the 1911, before passing it by. Sure, it would make this fight easier, but he wouldn’t get much, if any, kill energy while using the weapon. If this attack had happened before he’d met Nine and Davis, Ethan wouldn’t have hesitated. There was no way he’d risk life and limb to grow his mana pool for that greedy core’s use once her true personality had been revealed. Now, however, he had Nine’s health to think about. So, the more mana he had to work with, the faster he could return her to her optimal state.

“This is going to suck,” he muttered under his breath, before waving his arms over his head at the charging riders and shouting. “Hey, ugly… Yea, I’m talking to you. I’m up here. Not that any of your mangy mutt mounts can even reach me with how slow they are.” Ethan wasn’t sure if his words would have any effect. Honestly, he didn’t even know if the goblins could understand what he was saying. It seemed like some things transcend little things like a language barrier though. Since, at his shouting, all four of the goblin riders kicked their mount on even faster.

Ethan frowned when he saw the hobgoblin had actually slowed down. Not that he had time to dwell on it. The four war dog mounted goblins had already reached the ship and were bounding up the dirt walls of the trench, which covered both sides of the ship. He frowned again when he realized that they had split up, two per side.

Just like he hoped, the pair who had climbed up the trench wall closest to the inland side of the asteroid hit the flat roof and went sliding away into the void beyond. The other two, the ones who’d come up the other side, slid across the roof as well. Only there was earth over there, so they didn’t fall. Ethan had hoped to be able to catch more than two of the goblins in his trap, but it looked like simple chance had saved half the riders, and the hobgoblin leader was now warned about the dangers posed by the metal roof of the ship.

Seeing the armored war dog ascending the incline at a much slower pace, Ethan cursed. He wasn’t going to have time to deal with the goblins who’d already passed him by. So, he sent mental instructions to his war dog and the stoats who were lying in wait for his command. A clear image of the war dog charging the lead goblin rider, and once he slammed into the pair, the stoats would swarm from cover and attack the same one. They weren’t to go near the second pair of mount and rider until the first pair had been dealt with.

He wanted to give his creatures a fighting chance, so overwhelming force was going to be the order of the day. Putting the fight going on behind him out of his mind, Ethan focused on the hobgoblin who’d just made it to the roof. He was Nine’s size, only considerably thicker with muscle. While the pony sided war dog, strangely enough, looked thinner than the regular war dogs. It only took Ethan a moment to figure out why that was.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The war dogs were thinner than they looked, thanks to all that volume of shaggy black hair. While the armored war dog had thick plates of bone covering much of its hide. The shaggy fur that grew between the plates wasn’t enough to hide the fact that the dog was rather slender. Not that he had any intention of underestimating the beast just because of his apparent scrawniness. It was strong enough to run at speeds a scooter would envy, while carrying an armored hobgoblin on its back.

Taking a deep breath, Ethan advanced on the rider. Wrist twirling the stone hammer around in a slow arch as he moved. The hobgoblin, seeing the fight going on behind Ethan, actually let out a guttural laugh before hopping off the armored war dog’s back. Stalking towards Ethan with measured steps, it twirled his own axe in what was clearly a mocking imitation of what Ethan himself was doing.

Already regretting his decision to try to preserve his creatures’ lives, Ethan’s eyes darted between the hobgoblin and the armored war dog as the pair circled around him from different directions. This was going to end poorly.

With a flash, the hob stepped forward, swinging the giant, for him anyway, axe in a horizontal arch meant to catch Ethan right at waist level. Jumping backwards, Ethan was able to dodge the swing. However, the move delivered him right into the waiting jaws of the armored war dog. Its teeth snapped shut around his shoulder, and as Ethan screamed in pain, the hobgoblin laughed again. This was a move the pair had clearly used before, by how well they executed it. Alternatively, Ethan thought as the pony sized dog started shaking its head violently to enlarge the wound in his shoulder, Ethan was just stupid enough to fall for it.

Motion from behind the hobgoblin caught Ethan’s attention. His initial thought was that more attackers were coming. Not that any more were needed. The raised axe in the hob’s hands was a clear enough indication that he’d lost this fight. Then what he was seeing actually registered to him, and he was only able to fight back a bloody grin because of the pain the dog was inflicting upon him.

Nine, who’d exited the ship, despite his warnings, held the Martian made taser rifle. No sooner had her head popped over the lip of the ship, she fired two rounds, one taking the hobgoblin in the back, the other slammed into the bone plated side of the war dog.

The hobgoblin whose armor seemed to block the charge whipped around to see who was there. Ethan could see the visibly crackling taser round lodged in his back armor, but the round aimed at the armored war dog must have struck the animal right between the bone plating, because it let go of him with a yelp of pain. Instantly dropping to the ground to writhe around in agony. Ethan, whose shoulder burned with agony of his own, nevertheless took the opportunity to smash his hammer down on the beast’s head. It continued to flop and flail around but considering the size of the dent in its skull, it wouldn’t last for too much longer.

With a roar of rage, the hobgoblin spun back around, using the momentum of the turn to bring the axe around in a cutting chop that caught Ethan full in the chest. Pain exploded in his ribcage from the impact, and he found himself being thrown away. The strike didn’t save the hob though. A second taser round from the rifle hit him, only this time, it struck the back of his unprotected head. Ethan watched as it joined him on the ground, both hunched in on themselves, trying to escape the pain they suffered.

The hobgoblin’s pain ended faster than Ethan’s, something that Ethan found himself shockingly ok with. Since the relief of pain came at the end of a goblin spear Nine drove down into the hob’s neck. Ethan, who was still trying to catch his breath around a number of shattered ribs, watched the hobgoblin bleeding out, before remembering the fight that was going on behind him. With a pained grunt, he rolled over, tapping back into the link he shared with his bonded creatures as he did so.

Instantly, he could feel that three of the threads were severed. A closer examination revealed that they had all been connected with stoats. It was surprising to him then, that the war dog he was connected too was also on the ground, writhing in agony. It only took him a moment to realize what had happened. Nine. She didn’t know that one of the war dogs was his and had just shot all of them.

“Wait,” he croaked out, the kill energy from the armored war dog still coursing through his system, finally going to work on the damaged caused by the axe. “That one… is mine…” he managed to gasp out, pointing at the war dog Nine was even now walking towards, spear in hand. Thankfully, she understood, with a nod she changed her course towards the other downed goblins and mounts.

The stoats hadn't been idle during this time either, though Ethan couldn’t tell just now who’d been killed by them and who was just stunned by the taser rifle. What he could tell was that two of his stoats had grown in size and power, the link binding them had also thickened. Distracted for a moment at the strengthened emotions he felt coming through the thread, Ethan didn’t realize that Nine had slain the remainder of their attackers. Not until she walked over and kicked him in his already injured ribs, with more power than he thought she would be capable of.

“Are you some kind of damned fool?” She asked in a loud voice, driving her foot into him again. The kick hurt, and he groaned in agony. While his bonded creatures snarled or growled and headed towards the woman who was attacking him. With a mental flick, he warned them away. He only wished Nine was so easily deterred.

“Ouch, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” he got out between clenched teeth. Looking up at her through tear blurred vision. The kill energy from the armored war dog had been substantial. Significantly more than he’d gotten from any of his earlier kills, but it was having a hard time dealing with his injuries. Between the bite to his shoulder, and the axe that had, thankfully, only broken his ribs since it was stopped by his armor. Something he was grateful for, since it would have likely cut him in half otherwise.

“You’re sorry?” She asked, her own voice hitching from strong emotion. “For what exactly?” She asked, kicking him again. Only this time, the kick contained very little power. It was more for show than anything else. “For running off to fight alone when you had back up? For attacking foes who clearly outmatched you with a damned rock tied to a stick? For not even taking the taser gun, which is specifically designed to incapacitate without killing. Since you were clearly worried about the kill energy more than your own life.”

“I… I panicked, ok?” Ethan said, as the kill energy ran its course, and he was left to see just how bad the damage was. “I didn’t know the big ones were going to show, last time, it was only four goblin riders… and I wanted to get stronger.” He mumbled the last line, dreadfully embarrassed because he had never even thought of using the taser like she had.

“Right, so, translation… ‘I’m and idiot who doesn’t know how to think and I forgot about the taser.’ Does that about sum it up?” Nine had dropped to her knees while she was talking, and Ethan could clearly see the tears in her own eyes now. At least he could before she threw her arms around him and crushed him in a hug that threatened to break the ribs that hadn't fully fused together from the healing he’d gotten.

“Ouch, Nine… Nine… you’re hurting me…” he gasped out, and thankfully, she let go of him with a look of shock on her face. That shock turned to pure delight, when she used her hands to feel her own body, face and head.

“What the…” she whispered. Tears of a different kind flowing down her cheeks in rivers. For, although she was far from recovered completely, she had clearly improved. A peach fuzz of blonde hair had grown from her head, and the heavy bags that looked permanently sunken below her eyes weren’t as deep. Ethan could even see that, through the skinsuit, which by design was very tight, that fewer of her ribs were visible through the elastic fabric.

“It’s the kill… energy,” Ethan said with a grunt of pain as he forced himself to sit up. “With enough of it, you’ll be able to make a full recovery. That’s why I have been pushing to heal you… speaking of which…” Ethan, who’s mind had calmed down enough to feel the pain through his link to the war dog, remembered it had been injured in the fighting. Calling it over, he inspected the wound. A goblin axe if he had to guess. Thankfully, it had caught the dog in the shoulder blade and skittered off. The wound wasn’t deep, but a chunk of skin had peeled back, and the wound let out a steady stream of blood.

Reaching out with shaky fingers, Ethan smoothed the displaced flesh back into place the best he could, before willing the dog to be healed. Mana rushed from him in a steady stream, like with Nine, only a small portion of it actually entered the war dog’s body, but the wound slowly closed before his eyes. Stopping with about half his pool remaining, Ethan inspected the cut. The dog was still injured, but he wasn’t bleeding anymore. Sending the dog a feeling of comfort, Ethan mentally promised to heal it again when he was stronger, then turned his mana upon himself.

He had no idea if it would work, but he had half a mana pool to play with and fractured ribs, along with several punctures from war dog teeth in his neck and shoulder. To his relief, the mana had a healing effect on his body, just as it did to Nine’s and the war dogs. Unlike them, however, there was no wasted energy. The entirety of what he put towards healing himself actually went to the wound, and before long his pool was empty, and his wound was healed. Fighting through the sudden onslaught of dizziness, Ethan staggered to his feet, supported by a worried looking Nine.

“Are you going to make it?” She asked, clearly still worried about him.

“I’m good,” he said with a nod that sent his head spinning once more. “Bottomed out my mana pool healing myself and the war dog, but I’ll be fine in a bit. Let’s just… sit here for a while. Then, we’ll loot the goblins and take them back to Luna for biological material so she can make more stoats or goblins or whatever she’s going to do with it.”

“I don’t know why you would bother helping that stuck up core. She tried to stop me from grabbing the taser rifle earlier too. Put a goblin between me and the weapon stack. I ended up telling her if she didn’t move it, I’d bring the torch from the kid’s tool kit and burn the whole dang bridge down.”

“No,” Ethan said with shock. “How’d she take that?”

“About as well as you’d guess. Still, she let me have the taser. What I want to know though, apart from what possessed you to come out here alone… is why you wasted part of your pool healing that core’s war dog? If she wants it healed, she can do it her damned self. No point putting yourself through this pain on her account.”

“Ah,” Ethan said, understanding why she had been glaring at the war dog finally registering. “He’s not Luna’s war dog anymore,” he said, going on to explain about what happened below, and how Luna had transferred ownership of the animals to him.

“I see,” she said thoughtfully, absentmindedly scratching the fresh stubble on her head. “That makes since then… it also explains why you didn’t kamikaze them into the enemy, like you did during the last fight.”

“Kama what?” Ethan asked confused at the strange word.

“Never mind, ancient history from earth. Happened before humans even set up colonies on the moon. What’s important here is that you now have forces of your own. I agree that keeping them intact was the right call, now that I know they belong to you at any rate. I wonder… we’ll have to try it later…” Nine was staring between the armored war dog’s body, and Ethan’s war dog, who was standing on three legs, still favoring its front right paw.

“Care to fill me in?” Ethan asked, only now beginning to feel like himself again.

“Not right now,” Nine said with a shake of her head. “What’s important right now is that we get the loot and get back inside before any more bad guys come. I’ll get the weapons; you drag the bodies.” Nodding his head in agreement, Ethan levered himself to his feet and went about the task he was assigned. He couldn’t help but chuckle at how easily Nine had taken over the conversation, and how easily he’d let her do it. Firming his jaw as he worked, he resolved to keep an eye on that going forward. He liked Nine ok, but he already took flak from Luna, he refused to be anyone else’s punching bag.

“Sweet Terra are you two ok?” The kid asked some thirty minutes or so later. They’d dragged the bodies, stripped of weapons and, in the hobgoblin’s case, armor, to the bridge. Where Ethan had negotiated with Luna for a full ten minutes. Until he finally agreed to hand over the six bodies, in return for her replenishing the three stoats that had died. He’d been aiming for more stoats, and a second war dog, but she’d refused to budge. Not wanting to delay her expansion for even a second. Nine wanted him to insist, but in the end, Ethan gave up with an angry sigh.

“We’re ok,” Ethan said with a smile, ignoring Nine’s grumbled ‘barely,’ as he looked at the kid through an open hatch in a wall that hadn't been there forty minutes ago. “But, seriously, kid. How did you finish this entire wall so fast?” Looking at the neatly cut panels, Ethan would never have known it wasn’t part of the original ship if he hadn't been down here before it had been put up.

“It’s not my best work,” Davis said with clear annoyance on his face. “I got worried when you left, then Nine shoved all the boxes in here to float around with me and took off too. I didn’t know what to do since you told me not to leave… so, I did a rush job on the wall. Do you think Luna will mind?”

“Who cares?” Nine said with an exasperated breath, but Ethan only nodded with a smile.

“She’ll just be happy to expand her domain.” He said, looking at the wall again. He’d have thought the kid was fishing for complements, if he couldn’t read the sincerity in his eyes so clearly. “But you can’t come back in this way,” he added at the kid who was still floating in vacuum. “We’ll head up to the bridge and tell her to try the expansion. If it works, you should get gravity down there pretty fast. If not, well, at least with this wall in place, we can open the cargo hold through the hatch in the bridge’s floor to let you in that way.”

“Ok boss,” Davis said with a nod as he waved and shut the hatch.

“Boss?” Ethan asked quietly, wondering what the kid was talking about.

“Come on now, ‘Captain.’ You broke into the ship we were trapped in, rescued us both. Granted in very different ways. Then brought us back to your own ship, where you have a magic talking bridge, and superpowers. Can you really not see why the kid might have started thinking of you as his boss?” Now, that was a thought Ethan hadn't even considered. He frowned, thinking about the implications of what Nine was telling him right now.

“Come on,” she said with a laugh that lit up her much improved, but still painfully thin face. “Don’t over think it, ‘boss.’ Not like him calling you something besides your name changes who you are in any way. Besides, he’s waiting on us. He might not have come right out and said it, but he’s running out of air in there.”

“Oh, right.” Ethan said, realizing the kid had been in the vacuum for almost an hour already and he didn’t have a homemade scrubber unit like Ethan did. “Let’s get this done then.” Walking back over to the hole, Ethan boosted Nine out, before jumping out himself with no visible effort.

“Show off,” Nine snorted turning away from him in disgust.

“Sorry,” Ethan muttered as he followed her to the bridge. It was hard for him to control his strength sometimes. Especially considering that he only seemed to grow stronger with every fresh injection of kill energy he got. It felt like he had only just got used to his body, for it to change on him again.

Captain, good you are here.

Luna said the moment he walked into her domain.

Does this mean the wall is finished? Can I attempt the expansion now?

“Yes Luna,” Ethan said with a nod. “The wall is finished; you can go ahead and try to expand your domain now.”

Wonderful. Now, open the hatch into the compartment below.

Ethan chafed a little at the order, and it was an order, there was no mistaking the feeling behind the words that scrolled through the air and his vision. Still, it wasn’t like he could refuse based on a tone he didn’t like. Ignoring both his own silent anger, and Nine’s somewhat more vocal protests, Ethan fumbled around in the ancle deep vines until he found the mechanism, recessed into the floor, and spun the wheel.

----------------------------------------