Chapter 11: Raid

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 estimated that his tendril of nanites was approaching the village. He had calculated its position based on smoke emanations, possibly from some sort of manufacturing operation. He doubted it was an automated factory which he could subvert. His present capabilities were impressive in their sophistication, but entirely misused and with significant flaws. The location of the tendril was confirmed by a change in the terrain, he was detecting no tree roots in the area.

Instead of capture of infrastructure, the current objective was disruption of hostile operations and gathering of information. A secondary objective was mana generation to offset the cost of the operation. It was standard procedure to target and loot supply lines even at the cost of excessive materiel, as loss of equipment could be offset through captured supplies. If he could generate mana during hostile operations, then every operation becomes a supply raid fueling future operations.

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 was counting down the minutes until the beginning of the upgrade process, when he would have a full mana storage to work with. The plan was to spawn several more goblins for defense, while all 6 spawned goblins and the single dire wolf charged towards the village. More attack forces would be unoptimal due to the enormous mana cost of operating outside the controlled area. He had already mapped out separate paths for each creature, accounting for cover and ability to evade fire. The tendril would breach the surface at key points, which the creatures would traverse in order to reset their climbing mana upkeep during the operation. Meanwhile the area around the village would be prepped, with a subsurface layer subverted. He would create sensor spikes for increased awareness at the moment the goblins breached the cover of trees.

The plan had numerous flaws. The forest on the other side of the swamp could contain overwhelming defensive emplacements. The coordinates of the village could be wrong. He could have insufficient troops or firepower for the operation. The short-term risk was high, but the long-term risk higher. If the hostiles gathered in larger, more organized numbers then he could not scale fast enough to counter them. There was also a significant intelligence gap, and he had already been scouted by a team with high-end stealth equipment. If they were allowed to gather more info, then the gap would only widen.

He spent all the time he had on calculating paths. The seconds counted down, and his mana storage finally hit 2048, the maximum capacity.

The goblins and wolf moved instantly, sprinting along their precalculated paths. He could push them, max out their adrenals and overexert their muscles. So far they had recovered from injuries extremely fast, and at worst he could despawn and respawn when needed. An arrow pierced one of the goblins from the side, a shockwave of blood and viscera following the arrow as it continued on a path towards another goblin.

The goblin leapt to the side, but was too slow. The arrow flew too close and a glancing hit ripped out its right arm. The goblin immediately pivoted and altered its path to retrieve its weapon.

Three humans had revealed themselves, shedding their stealth by attacking. A flaw in their cloak, something to be exploited in the future. They were on a path dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had discarded due to poor cover. Two were unfamiliar, wielding a combination of shield and shortsword, one shorter, one taller. The third was familiar as it was the archer from earlier. Powerful piercing arrows with homing capabilities and the ability to target without line of sight. All forces began to change direction to intercept the previously cloaked figures, and the closest goblin used its existing momentum to lob a dagger at them at high velocity.

There was a flash of yellow as the dagger bounced off an energy shield. A portable miniaturized shield generator, impenetrable with current weaponry and assuming standard power supplies. Only the council and the leaders of larger corporations owned them. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 immediately aborted the intercept and continued with the original charge towards the village, each path now accounting for the archers firing angle, who had now started shooting conventional homing arrows. The disarmed goblin monitored the flight path of each, with the targeted goblins hopping to the side in the last moments before impact. It was merely slowing them down, the distance too great for a guaranteed hit.

The three humans began to pursue the goblins before pivoting and beginning their own charge towards the territory of dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0. The additional defensive forces would not be ready yet. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 assigned both the wolf and the unarmed goblin to distract them, leaving only 4 goblins assaulting the village.

There were a few moments of low activity as the goblin and wolf pursued the trio, while the rest sprinted towards the village on their computed paths. He would leave the analysis for later, but it was clear he should have accounted for a greater degree of troop losses so early during the charge phase. He had been too confident in his ability to detect the visual interference of the cloak this close to his position.

The wolf had doubled back and reached the trio before the goblins had reached the village. It charged at them. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 expected it to bounce off the shield, but instead the wolf passed through it, and leapt, biting deep into the archer. Splinters of wood covered the area as the trio faded. A distraction. He left them patrolling the area in case it was a double bluff. It was too late for the wolf and goblin to reach the actual target in time.

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 noticed something new a minute later. The trio had sprinted into an exposed area of the tendril. They were presently still visible to his senses, but slowly fading once again. He could feel a connection forming. They were carrying the first core he had made, back before he had his aspect. The connection made was automatic and still using the old protocols, but quickly adjusted into the new ones. He considered ways to distract them from interfering with the raid, but the taller human with the sword and shield merely spoke that it was done, before they continued sprinting and he lost the connection.

They had done that on purpose. Which meant they could do something with the core, especially with the upgraded variant of it.

The 4 goblins sprinted through the forest, following and crossing the tendril at even intervals. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 was splitting his focus between scanning the area for visual distortions and micromanaging the exact path of the goblins. By all estimations he should have several minutes before the trio reached them.

The goblins finally burst into a clearing with wooden houses and a river. The villagers had not been alerted, and were slow to react. There were around 13 in sight, wandering around the village, possibly more inside the houses. Only four of them were armed with spears and two of those also having shields. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 shifted his control upwards, grabbing a large portion of territory at once and forcing previously formed sensor spikes into open air. He tried to angle several as piercing weapons, but found himself unable to shift matter close to the humans.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Screams echoed, as the first villagers noticed what was happening. Most went indoors, still visible because of the sensor spikes, with a few simply running northward away from the village. The spear wielders seemed confused for a moment, before leaping into action against the goblins and forming a spearwall in a gap between two buildings. The placement of buildings in the village was vaguely defensive in nature, forming natural chokepoints.

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 considered just going around them, but it would be too slow. The trio were coming and each second counted. Instead of confronting the guards, two of the goblins jumped and shimmied onto rooftops, while two proceeded towards the guards.

The ground goblins charged the four guards, who lowered their spears and shields to meet them. A dagger stuck through the skull of the leftmost guard, followed by a goblin leaping onto him from the rooftop. The death returned a portion of mana, but less than previously. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had no time to investigate. The goblin did not waste time retrieving the dagger, as it had another, and only used the corpse as a springboard onto the next guard.

The next guard moved her spear unnaturally fast, catching and piercing the goblin leaping at her. She flicked her spear, launching the impaled corpse at the two charging goblins, but they had accelerated while she wasn't looking. A thrown dagger from a one-armed charging goblin distracted the other guard next to her by forcing him to block it with his shield. The distraction was enough to allow for passage and the other charging goblin slipped between her legs, slicing her tendons and driving the dagger into her spine when she collapsed. The remaining two guards panicked and the goblin on the other rooftop tried to take advantage, but was forced to dodge off the edge of the building. A villager had retrieved a bow and fired an arrow at it. Others were also emerging from their homes, wielding four-pronged spears and other improvised weaponry.

The goblins did not lose a single step as they grabbed their thrown daggers and sliced the remaining two guards apart by darting rapidly in and out of their range while surrounding them. The panicking guards lacked the coordination to protect all angles. The villager with the bow forced the goblins to dodge at times, but fled as he ran out of arrows.

The rest of the villagers were trying to organize a defense while a significant portion fled, but seeing the guards slaughtered left them off-balance. The goblins sprinted forward, cutting through isolated villagers. The defense effort turned into a rout, as the goblins moved from target to target without stopping. They switched tactics, not even bothering to finish the villagers off. Merely disabling them before they could flee.

A human with a cane, which dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had previously identified as either a squad leader or communications officers, emerged from a larger central building and calmly examined the carnage. Everything except her became blurry in his vision, highlighting her as a priority target. An obvious distraction. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 noticed a foreign signal coming from his sensors and isolated it from the true signal, returning his vision to normal. He reassigned two of the goblins to capture her, while leaving one to pursue the villagers. She could be a source of intel and he needed to identify how she was connecting to his sensor network.

The goblins leapt on her, knocking her to the ground as she made no effort to resist. One of goblins sat on her chest, with its dagger ready to slice her carotid artery, while the other was ready to drive a knife through her eye.

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 had not attempted to use the goblins vocal cords before, but he needed more knowledge. His sensor spikes had revealed only a few books inside the buildings and no obvious computers or comms, leaving interrogation as the only promising option. Something he was not good at, their usual pace of conquest too fast for it to be useful. It was also unreliable when done with this method, especially as he lacked the suite for interpreting human facial microexpressions and psychology. Only broad emotions and generalized behaviour apparent to him. Others usually kept more data, but he was alone.

The squad leader made an expression of surprise as the goblin sitting on her started making noises. The goblins vocal cords were unsuitable for making several phonemes needed for speaking Ilanian, so he was forced to improvise, causing damage to the goblins throat in the process of trying to find ways to create the correct sounds.

"Identify yourself, location, highest sovereign state, method of hacking." he ordered through the goblin, with a rough, guttural sounding speech. Her eyes widened.

"Melissa. An elder of this village." she answered in a hoarse voice. "And you?"

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 did not respond to the question, there was no reason to. "Location, highest sovereign state, method of hacking."

She coughed a bit, the movement causing the dagger to dig into her skin, at which point the instantly stopped coughing. "Village of Esterland, in the the Kingdom of Oakward? What is hacking?"

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 considered the answers from the elder, none of it was familiar. There were a few kingdoms in the empire, and even fewer in the rest of the galaxy to his knowledge, none of them name Oakward. "Spatial coordinates. Method of subverting sensor data."

"I don't know what those are." she answered, her face now that of focus. "What are you? You're no dungeon."

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 interpreted the question and statement. His status still referred to him as an Unnamed Dungeon. He had questions, but they would confirm that he had gained control of this piece of equipment, instead of leaving it as a suspicion. Speaking may have been a mistake. She was however unlikely to spread any information she gained. "Why do you speak Ilanian?" he asked, but was interrupted before she could answer.

A human dashed into view, ahead of the rest of the trio. It was the short one with the sword and shield, now wielding a sword and the goblin core in the other hand. Meaning it must be more useful than the shield. She paled upon seeing the carnage, but then began rapidly moving towards the goblins. She was accelerating in short impossible spurts. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 analyzed her more ordinary movement patterns out of a hunch. He had seen that pattern before, she had spinal reflex augmentations accelerating the speed at which signals reached the muscles. Something inbuilt into the genetics of his kind, but requiring major reconstruction in humans. He analyzed previous data, and found it was present, but to a much lesser extent. Possibly augmented by the core.

The two goblins tried to stab the elder and slice her throat, but were knocked away by a shockwave as soon as they made the attempt. It launched her onto her feet in the process, but she could only run forward a few steps before slowing to a walk. The goblins leapt back onto their feet, but the other human was approaching rapidly. One of the goblins tossed a dagger where she would dash next, but she had foreseen the move, and dashed to the side instead. The next movement brought her shortsword through the head of the goblin which had retained its dagger. The humans face was incredibly pale, and she spit some blood on the ground before pursuing the other goblin without dashing. As soon as she got the chance, she dashed again and stabbed her blade through the goblins neck, only to receive a hit in her thigh as the goblin angled its dagger the right way. The position had been slightly off compared to where he estimated the dash would leave her, and did not pierce any major blood vessels, but would still result in copious bleeding.

dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 retreated with the last remaining goblin, which had thus far been chasing the villagers. The goblin retreated into one of the buildings, finishing off anyone in its way that had not yet bled out.

The rest of the trio had arrived, only visible through the sensor distortion. There was no point in continuing the battle. All the villagers had already fled, and the singular goblin was unlikely to damage the remaining humans now that they had the shield. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 watched as the humans collected the few wounded survivors and goblin cores and retreated northward. The human with the core and sword collapsed immediately when the others arrived. He thought it unlikely she would survive, but that was not accounting for all he had seen recently.

The village grounds were covered in corpses, blood and dead grass. Firmly under his control and surveillance. A decent starting point for expanding into the surrounding forest. He had also gained a surplus of mana, allowing him to speed up the upgrade process significantly.

A successful operation as far as resource gathering went, but he would have to reclaim the goblin cores and examine the village for intel.