“…after questioning, I dropped him in the river. The trogs took care of the evidence from there.” Owl five was filling him in on her mission while they walked the sixty plus goblins back up the tunnels. Ronin winced a little at her casual dispatch of the hob, but he supposed it was necessary to maintain secrecy.
Ronin didn’t let on that he had seen part of her trip. He didn’t know why, but he wanted it to be a secret that he could view through her eyes. That got him thinking about how useful an ability that was, and about Owl three and Owl four. Owl two had put their bodies back in their pods after they died. Stating that they were filled with valuable components. Ronin had been horrified when he’d looked through the window to see their perfectly restored forms, kept alive and functional by the high-tech pods. Perfectly healthy in body, but brain dead.
He’d tried demanding that Owl two bury them at once, but the android had talked him out of it. He’d done everything he could to put them out of his mind until now. however, the ability to see through a scout’s eyes was just too much of a temptation. Could Owl two transplant the eyes into some of Ronin’s other people? He felt a little sick at the thought, how much had he changed from the book loving man he’d been? Still, he would have to ask.
“So,” he said once she was done. “To sum everything up… the ‘masters’ built the city and kept hobs as soldiers and goblins as servants. Then at some point in the past, they took the best soldiers and servants with them… leaving this cave behind and collapsing the tunnel when they left?” looking over to Owl five he watched her nod.
“Yes, sir.” She said in agreement. “All the tunnels that are open are apparently dead ends. They trapped their minions in here… until a cave-in opened the tunnel we came in from, that is. I asked the hob about it; he didn’t even know it was there. I guess they don’t go into the mushroom forest much; just guard the bridge against trogs and throw goblins across when they get too numerous.” Again, she didn’t seem bothered by the treatment of her kind. Well, she was only half goblin, Ronin wondered if that mattered. Not that humans were any better. Ronin had eaten worms he’d scavenged, all the while knowing someone, he’d grown up with was starving to death. He’d come to accept that sharing would have just meant they both died.
“that’s good.” He said nodding, “I heard a similar story from the ‘Hobat’ over there.” He motioned to the collared bat creature K3 was carrying. Apparently, they didn’t have a name for their species. so, Ronin named them batlins and hobats. Since they were basically goblins and hobgoblins with wings.
“He said the ‘creators’ left them here. He said they were charged with protecting the castle and following the orders of the castle lords… guess there was quite the battle between the hobgoblins and the hobats for ownership of the castle. When the hobgoblins won, they sent people down to see what their new bosses wanted, but they kept getting killed. Taking that as orders to stay away, they haven’t gone near the castle since…”
“Really?” Owl five asked, looking over at the hobat. “The hob didn’t have anything to say about them. Other than they were weak and scared of the mighty hobgoblins.” She added with a chuckle. “Why is K3 carrying that one, is it injured?”
“No,” Ronin said. “He can walk, with the aid of his wing hands… he’s just really slow. They are primarily aerial creatures.” He looked over at the five-foot-tall bat creature. It looked tiny compared to K3’s massive bulk. “I guess the batlins are basically just goblin shaped animals. They follow the hobats subsonic orders since they can’t speak.” Ronin was happy about that, because it meant he didn’t have to feel weird when he had batlin clothes made for himself.
“That’s a mixed bag than, isn’t it?” she asked, still looking at the hobat. “On the one hand, they are going to give us a fight when we try for the city. On the other, they should follow orders once we take the city from the hobs… it could get bloody, but if we plan this right, we could gain a lot for a low cost.” She continued, musing aloud.
“Go for the city?” Ronin asked, trying to fain ignorance. He hadn’t mentioned his plans to take over the city to her, had he?
“Sir,” she said looking at him with her helmeted head cocked. “That city is a strategic goldmine. Its well located and easily defended. Full of goblins and hobgoblins, both of which happily follow the strong. There’s also these batlins and hobats that will apparently also fall in line once you take over… honestly sir, if you’re not already planning on taking over that city, then you need to get your head examined.” She said, as blunt as ever.
Ronin smiled behind his own helmet, cheeks heating in a blush. He had a love hate relationship with these helmets; he hated that he couldn’t see her face when they talked, but he liked that she couldn’t see his when he went red like this. She was right of course, for all those reasons and more. He needed healthy followers to save Markus; and being an underground city lord may or may not be on his list of past fantasies.
“You’re right, as always.” He eventually said. “I was thinking about how to take over the city. It’s in rough shape, but it shouldn’t take us long to whip it back into working order…” Heck, with Owl two at his side, he wouldn’t be surprised if they had electricity within the year. There was a waterfall after all, and a water wheel wouldn’t be that hard to construct… his mind drifted away into his fantasies again. He had to stumble over a rock to bring himself back to reality. Looking around sheepishly, he saw Owl five’s shoulders shaking in silent laughter. Shaking his fist at her in mock outrage, he moved forward to talk to Guts.
The trip back passed uneventfully. There were no more stone carver rats, it seemed like they had been on a long migration because they didn’t find any evidence of their passing other than that one instance. That left the rats entrance point, the mine entrance, and the small crack into an area outside the valley. Ronin checked his map again. He’d uncovered everything between his valley and the mushroom forest. His eyes were once again drawn to the crack in the wall. It was only a few hours walk from the mushroom forest. After they took over the underground city, they would have to explore out there. It was much more conveniently placed than his own valley. As it stood, they needed to march for a few days to get outside.
One stand out from the trip back was the menu. Guts had stuffed a few packs full to the brim with mushrooms, moss, vines, and giant insects. He’d been experimenting with the ingredients and, after making sure they weren’t poisonous, fed them to Ronin, Owl five and K3. They all had a strong attraction to the mushrooms, all except K3. The big guy didn’t like them very much, he did take a fancy to the insects though. Ronin was amused to watch him crunching happily into the three-inch-long boiled ants Guts had made.
The four of them sat together at their own little fire at each break time. after they had seen to the goblins needs and spoken with Karr and Hunter’s teams. He had already gotten close to Guts and Owl five, but Ronin had been surprised to find that he really enjoyed K3’s company as well. The giant didn’t speak often, but his presence was comfortable.
Ronin realized all these people were literally made for him, so it would be strange if he didn’t like them. Still, it was hard to complain when he had friends for the first time in his life. Besides, its not like they were really different from him anyway. Sure, they were created by a living computer, but his physical body was destroyed, and he was essentially just biomechanical data in the same system they lived in. they might not have been born on earth, but they seemed plenty alive to him.
Cutting into a mushroom steak that had been simmered in a dinosaur bone broth, Ronin smiled. Brie sat beside him enjoying the same dish, and K3 munched on boiled ants. Guts tended to the food and muttered to himself, trying to remember the recipes. Ronin made a mental note to teach him how to read at some point so he could keep a recipe book. With as much fun as he was having with his companions, Ronin thought about Owl two. He hadn’t seen the android in a few days and decided that after dinner he would check in on his assistant. Sitting back against the wall, Ronin let everyone know he would be doing some mental planning for a while and closed his eyes.
* * *
When he opened his eyes again, he was seeing from Owl two’s prospective. the android’s vision was different from any of his other team members. His vision was filled with small boxes of numbers and text. Ronin couldn’t read most of them and the ones that he could didn’t make much sense. Looking past the text, he tried to get his bearings. It wasn’t as easy as he hoped. It felt like he was looking at the world through several layers of data, which created a picture, rather than seeing the world with eyes and putting a picture together in his mind.
After several minutes of effort, Ronin was able to slowly make out his surroundings. Owl two was in the base, in the area he had set up for the stone carver rats. He’d created an enclosure for them out of some kind of wood or plant? Ronin couldn’t tell, but the rats weren’t chewing on it at least. The enclosure was set up like a small maze, and each rat was in its own small cage. From this vantage Ronin could only see three of the four rats he’d brought back.
With a tug, Owl two lifted the gate holding one of the rats in its cage and it entered the maze. Ronin looked at it curiously, there was a small device strapped to its head. as the rat sniffed the air, it just stood there for a moment, until a small beep sounded from the device along with a blue light. The rat began to move forward right away at the sound, coming up to an opening in the maze. The device beeped again, this time in a different pitch and a red light flashed. The rat instantly stopped and backed away from the doorway. Turning, it moved towards another entrance, nothing happened this time and it continued forward. in this area was a small stone, the rat lunged at it instantly, only to be stopped by a beep accompanied by a red light.
Backing warily away from the stone, the rat continued through the maze, taking its cues from the device mounted to its head. moving when the light was blue, stopping when it flashed red. Ronin watched in fascination until it made it all the way through and exited the maze on the other side. A large chunk of metal sat there waiting for the rat. It waited until the light flashed blue before it lunged at the metal and devoured it in several rapid bites. It then moved into another cage where Owl two closed it in again.
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Owl two repeated this process with the next two rats. The second did about as well as the first rat. It did have a little more trouble avoiding the stone, however. It got much closer than the first rat did, and its head mounted device started to vibrate, in addition to the red light and beep, before it stopped and moved away. The third rat was a different story. it ignored the beep, the light and the vibration, going straight for the stone. As soon as its teeth touched the rock, the device lit the pen with arcs of blue lightning.
The rat writhed in agony, letting out an ear-piercing shriek that could have come from a human throat. Ronin had been keeping half an eye on the boxes in his vision during the tests, and the numbers when this third rat had come out weren’t as good as the first two. he didn’t know how he knew that since he couldn’t read them, but the longer he was looking from Owl two’s eyes the better a feel for it he got. The numbers somehow showed a failing grade on this third rat.
Owl two picked the still screaming rat up and tossed it into another cage. This one was filled with scrap metal from the Kaldarrian ships. The rat started eating as soon as the device stopped hurting it, and shortly after dropping it in, Owl two turned away. It looked like this one couldn’t be trained, so it was being fattened up for the slaughter. Owl two moved to another cage, this one held the only female rat of the group. It lay on its side surrounded by baby rats. Lifting her out, Owl two put the mother rat in with the first rat that had done the best in the maze.
It didn’t take long for the rat to claim its prize, and the female was put back in with her babies. Ronin counted seven in the brief window he had to look. he also caught sight of the metals Owl two had in the cage. They were much higher-grade alloys than the scrap metal the failed rat was eating.
“So, he’s doing training and breeding experiments huh?” Ronin thought as he watched the android tidy up and move outside. Once again, he was overwhelmed by the amount of data he was looking through, but it eventually settled down when they reached their next destination. They were at the damaged drop ship turned into a trog container.
Moving up to the rear ramp, Owl two opened a small round door in its center. It had a round crank for an opener and reminded Ronin of a submarine hatch. Climbing inside, he saw the trogs. There were ten adults all sitting around meekly, looking up at Owl two. they were still collared and chained to the bulkhead, but it looked like the aggression inhibitors were doing their jobs.
“Stand up for your meal,” Owl two said. dragging a large sack of meat inside that he must have picked up while Ronin was still adjusting to his surroundings. they got up obediently and waited for Owl two to give them each a large chunk of meat. “You may eat now.” He said, moving back towards the door. the trogs started tearing at the food when they heard his order, gobbling it down in a matter of seconds.
“How are you today number six?” Owl two asked, moving to one of the trogs. Ronin noticed it had a six printed on its collar. The trog didn’t even blink at the question, instead just standing there in a stupor. “Sit down and then stand up please.” Owl two said and watched as number six complied. It was a little unnerving for Ronin to watch, like all life had been drained out of them.
Stepping backwards to the hatch again, Owl two lifted a remote from out of Ronin’s line of sight and pressed a button. Number six didn’t respond for almost two seconds, then it screamed in rage and lunged at Owl two. coming up short at the end of its chain, it never the less snapped its crocodile jaws at him and thrashed its tail in a mad attempt to reach the android.
“Number six, please sit down.” Owl two said calmly, raising his voice to be heard over the growling crocodilian humanoid. The trog gave no indication of having heard him, even when the collar started shocking the beast for disobeying the order, it just kept right on trying to get at the android. Lifting the remote again, Owl two pressed another button. Again, within two seconds the trog calmed down and sat quietly on the ground.
Ronin read the failure in the numbers as clearly as he saw it with Owl two’s eyes. the trogs couldn’t be civilized. Still, as he looked at the numbers before him, and thought about what he saw himself, Ronin could still see value in the trogs. They might never fit into the society he was building, but if managed properly they could still be useful. Owl two spent a little more time on the trogs before going back outside.
Closing the door, he moved around to a crate near the drop ship. When he Lifted the lid, Ronin saw red light emanating from inside. It was filled with trog eggs, and several heat lights. They were divided into two groups, ten in each. Owl two spent some time looking them over and measuring them. then he turned over all the eggs from one group, leaving the other in place. Ronin read some of what he was trying to do in the numbers.
Finished with this crate, he opened a second crate right next too it. this one was also filled with trog eggs, split into two groups of ten but without the heat lights. Again, Owl two measured them and turned one of the groups over before closing the lid. he didn’t know how trogs reproduced so he was attempting to hatch the eggs by trial and error. Ronin thought he could read that he’d attempted to leave the eggs with the trogs, but it had been a failure for some reason.
Done with the trogs, Owl two and his passenger moved on to the tent city. Ronin was still struggling to see while the android moved, but it was getting better. There was just so much information being flooded into his eyes that he couldn’t track it all. it settled down again when he entered a tent house.
“Hello Owl two,” came a voice from inside.
“Hello Samantha,” Owl two said after entering. “How are our students doing?” he asked looking around at the double handful of goblin kids. A quick count put their number at fourteen. Ronin frowned looking at them, something was wrong.
“Good so far.” She said, now in Ronin’s line of sight. “The three pure blooded goblins are already clearly the worker class, unfortunately. It would have been nice if one of the scouts had been pregnant when they got here. that would let us know if the crafter class is genetic or not. Any chance of doing a trial run?”
“None I’m afraid.” Owl two said. “Lord Ronin gave me free rein over the workers but said the crafter class goblins were all spoken for.” He was crouched down, looking at three small forest green toddlers with red hair. They were crawling around and appeared to be looking for something. “Still only stimulated by food I see.” He said standing back up.
“Yea, sadly.” Samantha said, looking down at them. “They are a little older than the rest but still aren’t showing half the personality.”
“How are the rest doing then?” Owl two asked casting an eye over the other babies in the room.
“The four bred from the Kaldarr are naturally the largest. The one from K1’s sample is the largest of all, though again that doesn’t prove anything. They aren’t growing quite as fast as the pure goblins, but they already exhibit more intelligence.” While she spoke, Owl two focused in on the largest of the kids. They were also green, but their skin had a gray tinge to it, and they were thicker in the body.
“Excellent, how about the trog half breeds?” Owl two asked, shifting his attention to four more kids. These were a little darker than the standard goblin green, but their bodies were also covered with knobby growths of thick armor-like leathery hide. It looked a lot like the troglodyte crocodile flesh. The trogs were a dark green brown and looked just like a crocodile that had stood up on its hind legs. But apart from the skin, their mouths might be a little fuller but that was it.
“They are more aggressive during meals and play time, but its manageable. They also stick to their own group more than the others. the rest will mingle and play together but the trog half breeds are always clustered up.” Ronin noted that it was like that now as well. The other children were playing together or tussling or whatever, but the leather skinned goblin children were huddled in a pack staring out at the rest with mistrust.
“A shame,” Owl two said. “It looks like the trogs are too biologically focused on aggression to be anything other than attack dogs. it makes me wonder if they were bred that way to begin with… and the last three?” he asked, turning his attention to the lightest skinned goblins.
“The half human goblins are the most intelligent of the bunch. They’re also not as strong as the Kaldarr or as aggressive as the trogs. But they are growing just as fast as the rest. Its early days yet. But if I had to make a conclusion right now… I’d say the human half breeds will make the best workers, the Kaldarr kids the best soldiers and the trogs are more trouble than their worth.”
“It’s a little too early to make those calls I think.” Owl two said, “But what about the pure-blooded goblins?” he added afterwards.
“Again, I’m just guessing here. but I think the crafter class goblins aren’t pure goblins at all. they must have something else in their bloodlines that explains their intellect. But these pure breeds or worker class or whatever… honestly without the sexual inhibitors their no better than animals. They shouldn’t be allowed to breed at all until we have mixed their blood enough with a more useful race so they can control themselves naturally…”
Ronin tuned them out as he looked at the kids. He was a little shocked. When Owl two had been doing breeding experiments on the rats and trogs, Ronin hadn’t batted an eye. this though, this was different, or it felt different anyway. he had told his assistant that he could do whatever he wanted with the goblins as long as they were healthy, but this… he watched the room full of half breeds playing. They were babies, but they were already looking like toddlers. His mind wandered back to Emil’s words. That goblins were full grown at one year but able to reproduce by six months.
If that breeding rate could be applied to the Kaldarr… wait…, was he actually considering this? his assistant was forcibly breeding the goblin women. That was wrong. Or was he? Hadn’t Samantha said ‘K1’s sample’ that would mean artificial insemination, wouldn’t it? He sighed mentally.
“Why does everything have to be so complicated?” he asked himself as he thought over the problem. It was pretty clear just looking at these babies that the Kaldarrian and human half breeds were superior to the rest, at least mentally. Did that matter though? They were all living creatures after all. that being said, goblins didn’t care at all about parenting or who’s child was whose. Accidental inbreeding wasn’t just possible, it was common.
Pulling his point of view back to his own body, Ronin opened his eyes. “Not like I can change what he already did anyway. So, I might as well wait and see how it turns out.” he thought, still feeling conflicted.
“You done with your ‘mental planning’?” Brie asked from where she sat beside him. Blinking, Ronin noticed she’d moved closer to him. Their sides were nearly touching where they sat, leaning against the tunnel wall.
“ha-ha, I don’t know.” He said with a shrug. “I think I just confused myself even more.” He smiled at his half goblin teammate. “Anything exciting happen while I was away?” he asked. If she was anything to go by, mixing the blood was a no brainer. He just needed to make sure the goblin women hadn’t been forced and had understood what they were doing. The fact that he knew they wouldn’t care in the slightest not making him feel any better.
“Not really,” she said with a slight smile. Adding, “Unless you count our fearless leader drooling on himself during his ‘planning’ session” she giggled at her own joke, popping a boiled ant into her mouth and biting down with an audible crunch.
“Ohh… really?” he said with his own smirk. “I will have you know that I don’t drool while I’m ‘planning’ or sleeping for that matter.” Reaching over, he took one of the boiled ants from her hand and popped it into his own mouth. Biting down, he felt the crunch as much as he heard it. Karr and his men found the bugs disgusting, but Ronin had grown up eating worms and clams, so he didn’t find any real issue with eating the insects.
“Hey!... Sir, that was mine.” Brie said with a little laugh slapping his arm lightly. “So…”
“Oh, you’re awake.” Guts called from not too far away. “Are you hungry? I have a few dino bone mushroom steaks left over.” Ronin looked up at his goblin chief turned cook as he approached.
“No, thank you Guts.” he said, looking to Brie and finding that she’d slipped away. She was now a good ten feet away and already donning her helmet. “But thanks… so much for offering… right now.” He muttered through clenched teeth.