Princeton stopped as we approached the outer deck control. “Okay, this is as far as I go. In there is your department head. He’ll take over from here, good luck!”
“Is that you, princess?” I heard a rough voice holler from inside the beaten-up cargo door. Princeton quickly turned and hurried away before I could ask any more questions.
I stuck my head inside, and I had definitely found the drone control bays. I was right about them being mounted on blisters, a strip of space that covered the less-armored underside of the ship, about ten feet wide, with pressure doors that looked like they probably led to drop bays, most of them closed. Not that ship armor was typically of much use if something penetrated the shields, but the drone launches were probably better defense against a penetrating strike than the armored top of the ship. If The Crow had to land on a surface, it was designed to become a heavily armored bunker with excavation potential in the armored drones under its turtle-like shell.
“Ey, what the hell are you?” the voice asked, and I was face to face, or rather, he was face to chest with me. It was a little uncomfortable, because I was acutely aware that I was a lot more female-looking than the last time I had dealt with them, and he was a goblin.
Older than the ones I had trained with, he had a full remote programming rig strapped to his hip, along with a VR set on his forehead and a full set of high-tactile gloves, the preferred rig-out for a deep-diver drone pilot. I didn’t use that setup myself, but it was MO for someone with a decent ranged affinity and reflex enhancement instead of a powerful remote node trait. My teammate, Kaxis, had used something similar, and while he couldn’t rebuild and reprogram on the fly like I could, his drones could respond like they were part of his skin in an intricate dance of response and control I could only dream about.
“I am petty officer Reynard,” I responded. The rig-out he was wearing didn’t have any rank insignia on it, so I had no idea if he was a pilot like me or the aforementioned flight controller. “Are you the flight controller, sir?”
He shook his head, “Naw. We don’t have no flight controller on board. I’m Chief Braxis. We’re supposed to get some kinda senior enlisted to handle that job in about a week, but on this ship, we ain’t got no fighters, just drone pilots and assault shuttle guys, so whoever is in charge of the assault force plays flight officer. Otherwise, the first lieutenant handles our commissioned officer woes. So again, what the hell are you?”
“An assault drone pod controller, chief?”
He chuckled, “Well, that’s obvious, but I meant literally what the hell are you? An elf-goblin hybrid? It’s a good hybrid for magitech drones, but I never heard of a charlotte letting her legs get pried apart by a goblin.”
“Ah.” I coughed. “No, I’m a gremlin. Well, for right now.”
“Ain’t never heard of no gremlin breeds, except, you know, the stories people tell when their scrot starts to break. Wuzzat?”
I scratched my head. “Rare breed, heavyworlder. Short. I grow up to look like a short, green, human woman with big ears.”
He grinned, “Sounds gorgeous, but that means you ain’t growed up yet? Damn. Well, stick my scrotter in a blender and call me a dredle if you ain’t gonna be a pretty one when you get older. So… did I hear princess out here?”
I nodded, “If by Princess, you mean Midshipman Princeton, yes. She said I’d meet my commanding officer here and took off.”
He chuckled, “Little miss stick-up-her-ass is scared of me. Yeah, right now I am the next in yer chain of command, but us drone guys are weird. Next past me is either whoever had the troops or straight to the first lieutenant, unless she’s busy, and then it’s the XO. Me, I don’t give a scrot if you go over my head, but she does. You already got yer berthing assignment? Girl’s side?”
I nodded.
“Damn, I was gonna put yer berthing right next ta mine.” I didn’t need to be an empath to realize that his whole daft jerk womanizer thing was an act meant to scare the newcomers. He was a goblin that looked old enough to be my grandfather. Still in great shape, which probably meant he’d already gotten to at least orichalcum, and I am sure if someone actually took him up on his blunt flirting he’d probably be up to the challenge, but his banter was probably meant to intimidate the kids.
“you said your name was Braxis, chief?” I asked.
He nodded, “Yes. Off patriarch of the Axis clan. Off meaning ‘off somewhere too busy doing things that matter to waste my time trying to run a family’. You know?”
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I smiled a little, “I had a friend.. a droner like you. All twitchy, named Kaxis.”
He grinned, “He’s one of my nephews. Too young for a family, alas… at least, I think he’s one of my nephews. Short, Green, big ears, sharp teeth?” he said, displaying the formidable choppers that took up half a goblin’s head.
I nodded, “Yep, You look just like him. He’s going to be a hard act to follow, though… I think he ruined me for any other goblin, especially since he thought I was a boy at the time.” I sighed melodramatically, “My nose will never be the same…”
He guffawed and then slapped his own coverall-clad belly to stop his laughing, “Oh yeah, miss, yer going to get along here just fine. We got 6 other drone controllers, and you make eight. We got two golems, and 5 techs, including me. We play Iron-man drone controller, though… so get used to excitement.”
“Iron-man? I am sorry, I’m not familiar with the term,” I asked.
He grinned, “We do both rift clears and void fights, girl. That includes the droners, not just the troopers. That’s why we got the fleet all beat hollow. Any one of our droners could probably take out a dreadnought because we play all sides of the fence! Are you ready to play hardball and get your hands dirty?”
Wait, they did both? Sure, it was horribly dangerous to be a trooper tech, but the survivors would gain mad essence and advancement, and hitting a rift with trained troopers at your back would be a thousand times less dangerous than hitting the ground on a hellworld!
“So we play troop tech at the same time?”
He nodded, “Well, that depends on what you drive. We can hit anything up to tech or magic eight since they counterbalance. If you run golems, you go in with the swordswingers and play healer, but if yer pure tech, you play drone driver and armor support at the same time. So which are you, oh non-half-goblin girl?”
I shrugged, “Sort of a hybrid. I can go either tech seven or magic six right now, but that’s because fleet doesn’t do heavy magic training… if I can get some advancement, I can probably even them up at eight, but I don’t have the training foundation yet.”
He looked at me speculatively. “That’s… different. A hybrid? How’s that work? Do you run drones or golems? What do we assign you to? I don’t have access to the command board, so the first I heard of ya was this morning, that they were bringing me a fill-in.”
I shrugged, “I can run both, but I prefer Drones. I have a… crossover gift. If I am using tech 7 drones, and the rift is tech 3, as long as it’s magic 7, they will still work, but my preference is mostly habit. I can run golems just fine, but finding a core is a lot harder than just finding a pile of scrap if I need to rebuild.”
“Enhanced reflexes?”
I sighed heavily, “Not yet. I am still tin. I want to get it, but umm… I thought I was going to be a fleet pilot. Limited advancement opportunities and mostly hellworld invasions.”
He wiped his brow exaggeratedly. “Whew, I was worried for a second there that you were going to replace all of us.”
“Is everything tech 7?”
“Naww. Most of it’s tech 6. We still gotta rely on fleet for incidentals, so most of the heavy armor is tech 6. The troopers have a magic five fire mage, but she’s still copper… she can’t play when we hit 7 and 8 rifts yet. Do you have the Aid trait?”
I shook my head, “True heal. Remote. I am not up to full regen yet, but between that and a good medical drone skill set, the only way a small troop will die is if they get their head cut off, I am a hybrid, so I can make it work even in tech-heavy rifts.”
“What the scrot kind of monster are you?” he asked, with a little bit of awe.
I shook my head, “No monster. I am a one-trick pony. Admittedly, it’s a fairly decent trick, but I am still working on putting on both pant legs at the same time. Maybe when I hit gold.”
“So does that mean an old goblin like me has a shot? I’ll wait if you got some growin’ to do.”
I shook my head, chuckling. He had a fine aura, decent and reasonably powerful for a non-mage, and way more powerful than your average goblin, even his supposed nephew who he’d probably never met… but it was just an aura, it had almost no… comfort to it. Not like wrapping myself up in a warm blanket that smelled like springtime and a father’s love and warm muffins all at the same time…. Scrot! Was I bonded already?
No way... I was too young. And I’d barely met him, never even touched him. If we’d bonded, I’d already be utterly loyal to him, and two weeks apart would make me in agony to see him again… I only just now remembered how incredibly wonderful his aura had felt. Therefore, no bond. Whew.
“Sorry, Chief. My heart belongs to another Axis. He carries it around in his boot, so every step he takes reminds him of me… squish, squish, squish, between his toes, and all the weird rotting meat smells he needs to remember our wonderful times together.”
“Damn girl, are you sure you aren’t half goblin?”
I was starting to hope Kaxis really wasn’t related to this goblin. There were a lot of them running around, but if he got wind of this joke, he’d NEVER let me live it down.