Chapter 15. Organizing Defenses.
“You seem to know what that is, LANI, how do we stop it,” Watkins asked as one of the surviving drones on salvage duty attacked the hostile organism. It stabbed with the screwdriver and latched onto one of its limbs with the other arm. Seeming to ignore the damage his drone was doing to it; the creature shifted a limb that looked like a human foot into a clawed hand that tore off the drone arm that was holding it.
Watkins’ drone wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and it ignited the welder inside one of its legs and burned into the body of the invader. The fire seemed to make the creature recoil, and the drone took advantage of its distraction to stab again with the screwdriver.
A pair of tentacular limbs wrapped around the drone, slowly constricting it. Watkins could see the metal body of his drone crush like an empty soda can. The drone got a few more seconds of burning done on the monstrous invader’s shifting body before something critical was damaged, and his drone went offline.
“That is one of the secondary issues we were studying out here, Captain Watkins, a creature of the void,” LANI said.
“Like the void of space? It’s some kind of space monster, not something from a planet? More importantly, what’s the easiest way to kill it?” Watkins asked.
“No, from a place we called the void, not the emptiness of space. Here, in this system, we detected an anomaly, small areas with impossible readings. It was almost like a jump point was forming, but the energy was off, and ever-changing. Eventually, a tear in space occurred, and from the void beyond that tear, things like that abomination entered the system.
“We sent one of the pair of patrol boats we used to have in the system to examine the creatures, but they were hostile and attacked. The vacuum of space seemed to harm them, but that didn’t stop them from attacking our boats. Lightly armed, one boat was boarded before the second was able to burn down the creature with a point defense laser.
“This thing, I think, is the sample we took of the monster before it completely dissipated after being killed. The stasis it was held in must have failed at some point and it’s been inside that chunk of station wreckage, probably subsisting on your core energy this whole time, just like the vermin have been,” LANI explained.
“Can my MOBS and drones take it out?” Watkins asked as the monster cast aside the crushed drone and began to pull at the sealed hatchway to that compartment.
“We have a chance, the sample is not that large, and if you gather your forces in one group, you can probably overwhelm it. If we fail, though, there won’t be an opportunity for a second attack,” LANI said.
“We’re down four drones now, let’s see how long it takes that thing to break inside. Hopefully the fabricator will have time to rebuild or losses. For now, we’ll gather everything in the fabrication room, and try to make a stand there. If the monster decides to go for my core directly, our forces will still be close at hand, and any reinforcements were able to create can join us right away,” Watkins said. While they watched the monster struggle with the hatch, he checked on his command limit. He’d integrated part of the hull, which should give him more to work with.
Core Processing Power: 36%.
Command Limit: 10/15.
1. Simple repair drone, Level 0 (4).
2. Mutated bilge rat, Level 0 (5).
3. Yendax Beetle, Level 0 (1).
“We have a few new unit slots open to fill as well. You know this thing LANI, should we stick with drones, or one of our other MOBS?” Watkins asked.
“The void creature is biological for the most part and will heal itself if we allow it time to kill and absorb your MOBS, so I’d stick with drones for now, it can’t absorb non-living matter. Your MOBS can join the fight after the drones have engaged it. Hopefully our forces will dish out more damage than the creature can heal from its absorption ability.
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Queuing up as many drones as his command limit could handle, Watkins watched the monster work. It tried various types of limbs, eventually going with more tentacles as it forced the hatch to open a small crack. Sadly, the hatches to those compartments were damaged and Watkins couldn’t seal them up as tightly as he would have liked.
Even with that limitation, Watkins pushed power into the hatch mechanism, trying to force it closed. The creature’s size was hard to judge, as it was constantly shifting its body shape around. If Watkins had to guess, he figured it had about the same overall mass as a small cow or horse.
He also noted something odd about it. Just like his bio-based minions, the monster didn’t seem to suffer from a lack of atmosphere. In another similarity, it seemed the cold did affect it, at least to a minimal degree. Some bits of the monster were constantly flaking off, turning into vapor after leaving its body.
“LANI, what's with the vapor stuff that thing is giving off?” Watkins asked.
“The void creatures are unnatural; they have no weak points or critical organs to destroy. Instead, when they take damage, they lose part of their overall mass. If they take too much damage, the entire mass will wither and go into a self-induced stasis of sorts.
“I doubt the cold will be enough to kill it, but it will slowly whittle away at its mass, giving our forces a bit of an edge,” LANI explained.
Watkins lost the test of strength, and the monster soon pushed the hatchway open wide enough to shove its mass through. Once inside, it was met with closed and dogged hatches in its section of the corridor. The only other hatches led to the armory and the reprocessor.
With eyes constantly forming and re-absorbing, it was hard to tell where its attention was focused, but Watkins could sense that it was after him, after his core’s energy. It ignored the armory door, and instead threw itself against the hatch leading to the reprocessor.
This hatch wasn’t damaged, but Watkins still had trouble keeping the monster contained. The locks on the hatch, a pair of ½ inch metal pins at the top and bottom of the door began to strain and bend. Checking on the fabricator, Watkins watched a newly produced drone walk to join the others gathering in the room.
Since he’d been struggling with the monster, a total of two replacement drones had been produced, and another one was just starting the construction process. Pushing all his efforts into the hatch, Watkins tried to stall the creature for as long he possibly could. If it got in before more of his reinforcements were ready, their odds of survival were rather poor.
It took a few minutes for the thing to finally best Watkin’s efforts, and push the hatch open enough to slither inside. He was worried that the void creature would tear apart or damage the reprocessor, but it seemed completely focused on getting to Watkins’ core. It only took the monster a few moments to zero in on the hatch between the reprocessor compartment and the fabrication compartment where his forces were organizing.
The delay at the reprocessor compartment hatch had gained Watkins enough time for another drone. That gave him a total of seven, and another was about halfway done being constructed. He would max out at nine, and had his available mechanical troops line up around the hatchway between the reprocessor and fabricator compartments.
He was planning on the monster having to squeeze through a small gap, right into the cutting torches, hammers, and screwdrivers of his drones. If it managed to force its way inside the compartment, Watkins would order his MOBS to join in the fight. After that, all he could do was watch as the battle for his survival played out in front of him.
Watkins pushed his focus on resisting the void creature as it tried to force open the last hatch between it and his forces. One part of his attention was latched onto the fabricator, noting that another drone was almost ready to join his defenses. This hatch was like other internal hatches, and while it was closed, the seals weren’t intact from the damage the ship had suffered so long ago.
He was fighting a losing battle, and Watkins felt the pins securing the hatch slowly bend. A quick count showed that he now had eight drones waiting around the hatchway, and the last that his command limit would support was over halfway complete. The five mutant rats and his single Yendax beetle waited just past his mechanical defenders.
As the pins securing the hatch snapped and the door started to slide open, his drones fired up their cutting torches and prepared to fight. Like before, the void creature snaked a tentacle in to try and force the hatch open further. This time, his minions were ready, and three torches cut into the invading limb.
The void creature didn’t make any noise, but Watkins could see it recoil from the damage it was taking. A good, foot long section of tentacle was severed and another of the drones began to hammer and stab at it, making sure it dissipated into vapor rather than reattach to the monster’s body.
In a fit of rage, the monster hurled itself into the hatchway, recoiling a second time as more drones were able to reach and attack it. They had damaged it, but only a small portion of its overall mass had been destroyed. It readied itself for another attack when the monster suddenly stiffened and began to flail about while forming different types of limbs.
“Oh dear, I didn’t expect that,” LANI said, shifting Watkins’ attention to the compartment ceiling.