“I asked you a question stranger.” The man on the wall shouted again. focusing up at him, Ronin’s cybernetic eyes constricted, bringing the man into sharp focus. The zoom feature worked automatically, just like the night vision, and in seconds it looked like the man was standing right in front of him. Unsure what to say in response, Ronin took the man in.

He was an older man, perhaps in his fifties. Ronin wasn’t the best judge of age. He’d looked far older than this man himself on earth and he had only been in his middle thirties. Yet, his intuition told him he was close enough. The man’s hair was grey, and he sported a massive beard of the same color. His clothes were all made of heavy leather that had been stretched and softened. His vitals were covered in thick plates of what looked like bone, or perhaps horn. He held a long spear in his hands with a metal point, and had a metal knife sheathed at his belt.

“Owl five was right,” he mused to himself. “It looks like they can work metal.” He hadn’t known what level of technology they would have, again, because he hadn’t paid close attention to the details.

“Sir.” Owl two’s voice brought him out of his thoughts.

“Oh right,” he muttered. Reaching up he unlatched his helmet and pulled it from his head, exposing his face.

“Sir, protocol mandates in hostile situations, helmets not be removed.” Owl two said quietly on external coms. Voice just as mechanical sounding as ever. Ronin waved his words away as he looked back up at the older man.

“Greetings,” he called up doing his best to sound friendly. “My name is Ronin. My team and I are adventurers. We came upon this valley by accident, and only intended to pass through. However, we saw that your mine looks to be overrun with goblins. I thought we should come tell you about it.” he said, ending with a smile.

“What, goblins?” the gate guard said with worry in his tone. “You better come in stranger, the mayor will want to hear about this.” having finished speaking, the guard kicked a large bundle at his feet. it unrolled into a rope ladder that clattered against the wall before settling into place. Ronin grinned. The conversation had gone almost exactly as he had expected. Only slightly interrupted by Owl two’s drivel about the helmet.

Ronin moved towards the ladder. He already knew how this was going to play out and was eager to get to it. when a hand on his shoulder stopped him in place.

“Owl three, up the ladder. Secure the perimeter, if its clear, signal for Owl five to ascend. Owl one will follow, and I will bring up the rear.” Ronin heard his words on his external coms, but he must have said them through helmet coms as well because Owl three moved over to the wall and began climbing. At seven feet tall, it looked like a running leap would place him near the top of the twenty-foot wall, even without the ladder.

With a sigh, Ronin gave in to Owl two’s paranoia. He wondered how many credits he would have to save in order to reprogram the android. He’d spent everything he had building this world as it was, and he’d yet to earn any after arrival. He shook the thought away; he was about to start fixing that problem.

Once Owls three and five had ascended the wall, Ronin was allowed to do the same. The ladder was constructed of large bones, held together with sinew. It was surprisingly sturdy considering its primitive construction. He supposed that shouldn’t be surprising, when he took into account that it was likely made from dinosaur parts. Reaching the top of the wall he used the height advantage to look around.

He couldn’t see the hole in the mountain from here, he was happy to note. He did see the large lake at the center of the valley though. It was surrounded by several dinosaurs and animals of varying description. All eating and drinking together without conflict. Most of the valley was densely forested, but a mile out into the valley from the gate had been cleared of all trees. Providing clear lines of sight out into the valley. Ronin couldn’t see any dinosaurs in the grassland areas, however there were several animals that looked like giant horned goats. They had long shaggy white coats, and were grazing the meadow grass, as they moved around in herds of five to ten.

“Hello lad, Ronin, did you say your name was?” asked the guard, reaching out his hand to shake. Ronin dragged his eyes away from the beauty of this non-toxic world with some effort, and took the proffered hand.

“That’s right,” he said with a smile. “My name is Ronin, these are my companions; Owl two, Steady aim and Brie. He said pointing out each of them in turn. We have one more member of our team, but he is watching our travel gear, so that we could make faster time in reporting the goblin den. What did you say your name was friend?” he asked in a friendly manner, mimicking how the prince always spoke to towns folk on his travels.

Owl two twitched when Ronin mentioned Grush. He could almost hear him saying “Protocol dictates…” In that annoying mechanical voice of his, but they weren’t here to cause trouble. Besides the natives wore leather and carried spears. The team’s railgun powered rifles could cut through them like those giant goats cut through grass.

“Ah, oh yes. My name is Peters, nice to meet you adventurer.” The man said while shaking Ronin’s hand. “Now, follow me please, I will take you to see the mayor.” He walked to the other side of the wall and started climbing down another rope ladder. Ronin watched him go, looking at the wall. it was ten feet across and twenty feet high. It looked like it was made entirely of huge logs that had been bound together with ropes. The top had been filled in with dirt and sod had been planted to keep it all together. The entire thing was very well built for a muscle powered society.

“Owl three…” Ronin half ignored Owl two as he gave out team orders. He just waited for his turn to climb down the ladder. He could have simply stepped off the side and landed just fine, but he didn’t want to scare the locals, so he waited. upon reaching the bottom, he heard Peters exchanging words with another older man.

“That’s what I said Gibbs, goblins, now get the wool out of your ears and get up on that wall. I gotta take this bunch to see the mayor.” Gibbs, who looked just as grizzled and bearded as Peters, was dressed in similar armor and armed the same. In addition to the leathers, he wore a heavy wool coat. It looked to Ronin to have been made from the giant goats from the valley. Grumbling all the while, Gibbs climbed the ladder to the top of the wall.

“This way folks,” Peters said as he led the way into the town. looking around, Ronin had to admit it was the perfect location to build and defend a town.

Placed as it was between the two sheer sided valley walls. One of the openings moved into a dead-end valley and was covered by a huge wooden wall. Ronin zoomed his vision across the town to the far side to find that, yes, the other end was completely blocked by an equally massive wooden wall. there were no gates in either wall, they must have to raise up and lower everything they wanted to bring into the town.

Following behind the slow-moving Peters, Ronin took in the buildings they passed. They were all wood framed constructions that had been sided with dinosaur hide. The heavy hides were stretched tight across the frames. More hides were affixed to the mountain walls on drying wracks. He spotted a well too. Several older women were hauling up leather bags filled with water from the depths and carrying them away on their backs. A few children played in the streets, kicking around a leather ball. Ronin frowned. He’d spent some time creating this place, but something seemed off. It took him a moment to place what it was, but when he did, his frown deepened.

“Peters,” he called up to their guide. “I can’t’ help but notice that everyone I see is either elderly, or very young. Where is everyone else?” The old man’s shoulders stiffened at the question, but eventually he responded.

“I’ll leave the mayor to answer your questions, adventurer.” After speaking he quickened his pace, revealing a limp that Ronin hadn’t spotted at the slower speed.

Now a little worried, Ronin checked on his companions. Owl two was still right beside him and behind half a step. Owl three was a dozen steps behind and sweeping the buildings and side streets with his rifle. Owl five, however, was nowhere to be seen. Concerned that something might have happened to her, Ronin started looking around franticly. A calming gesture from Owl two, and a subtly pointed finger calmed him down however. She was there, moving between the buildings. So stealthy that he wouldn’t have noticed her without Owl two’s assistance.

Reaching one of the leather houses / tents, which looked just the same as all the rest, Peters stopped the group with a raised hand and entered through a flap. The team waited outside for less than a minute before he returned. Motioning them over.

“The mayor said he can see you now, adventurer.” Peters said, “I’ve got to get back to the wall now. Old Gibbs isn’t likely to take my shift much longer. It was nice to meet you all, hope the discussion goes well.” Having finished speaking, he limped off down the street back the way they had come. Moving towards the tent flap, Ronin was again stopped with a hand on his shoulder.

“Owl three.” The Robot said simply. At his words, the giant Kaldarr moved into the tent, he returned only a short time later.

“Clear,” he said. Ronin noticed that his real voice was coming over the coms now as well.

“Owls three and five, stay out here and guard the perimeter.” Owl two said, moving forward and holding the flap for Ronin to enter. Rolling his eyes at how pretentious it all seemed, Ronin moved through the opening. He was surprised as he passed inside. The doorway was made of two hides, which overlapped a good four feet. it would be difficult for any cold air to enter this tent. Making him wonder what winters would be like here. Stepping inside, his eyes adjusted to the gloom instantly. looking around curiously as he entered, Ronin took in the house.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The place was simple, yet seemed extravagant to Ronin who’d lived his whole life in an empty hole in a cave wall. the floor was covered in dinosaur and goat hides. there was a table made of a mix of wood and bone, a few lamps hanging from the ceiling and a large pile of furs that served as a chair and sleeping area. right next to that pile was a small brazier with a fire burning inside.

“Welcome to my home strangers.” Came a voice from the pile of furs. “I am Emil, the mayor of valley’s pass.” Ronin hadn’t seen the figure at first, buried as it was in the pile of furs. He frowned; it wasn’t that cold out. so, why was the mayor covered up like that and sitting next to a fire?

“I see the question in your eyes, stranger. Yes, I’m sick. No, it’s not contagious. Its just old age catching up to me at last… anyway, come in, have a seat.” He motioned to the fur covered floor near the brazier. “Peters tells me you bring ill tidings from the valley?”

“Ah, y yes.” Ronin said with a slight stutter, this wasn’t what he had expected at all. “Right, mayor, we were traveling when we came across the valley. One of my people discovered what appears to be a goblin infestation in your mine… but… may I ask, what is going on here? the town seems a little deserted.” He couldn’t help but ask, the question was eating at him too much to keep silent. This place wasn’t supposed to be like this.

“You have sharp eyes stranger,” said the mayor from under his mountain of blankets. “Our town falls inside the boarders of the Mountain’s Embrace Kingdom. The kingdom has recently fallen under attack from some sinister foe and the king ordered all able-bodied men and women report for battle.” The old man’s words were interrupted by a series of hacking coughs.” When he was finished, he reached for a small glass of water and took a sip.

“They have been gone now for nearly six months,” he continued his story. “I fear that they won’t be returning any time soon either, if at all. since they left, we have struggled to keep the towns’ folk fed, to say nothing of mining. I believe that our neglect of the mine is what allowed the goblins to move in. The noise of our picks must have kept them at bay before. This is a real problem. Goblins breed very quickly; if we don’t do something about them soon, the valley will be overrun within the year.” Having seemingly tired himself out while talking, the mayor lapsed back into silence.

“I can see the problem,” Ronin said. Thinking about the old mayor’s words, the need for adventurers In the world was clearer than ever to him. “Well, mayor, I think we can help you with this problem if you would like. My team and I can clear out a small goblin infestation no problem. and while we are out, I wouldn’t mind hunting a little for the town’s folk. Do you have a preferred option? A dinosaur or one of those giant goats perhaps?”

“You would do that for us?” the mayor asked sitting up straight for the first time. Ronin was shocked when his frame came into full view, he had to be at least as big as steady aim. Age was starting to eat into his heavily muscled body, but he was still a sight to behold. “We have very little to offer you for this assistance, traveler, but we…” Ronin raised a gentle hand to silence the old mayor.

“Don’t worry about it, mayor Emil” he said with a smile. “I rather like this valley. It would be a shame to see it destroyed by goblins.” Leaning forward, Ronin began to discuss the details.

“I fail to see why any of that was necessary.” Owl two said on a private channel after they had safely left the town and returned to the valley. “We could have wiped out the goblins on our way to the town and simply reported our success to nearly the same results.” He was as annoying as ever, Ronin saw. He started in almost as soon as he had put his helmet back on.

“It was necessary, because our long-term goal on this planet is to gather resources, create infrastructure, build civilization… and go on a whole bunch of adventures, saving people in need.” he said, proud that he’d listed their goals in no particular order. “This valley is a great spot to set up in and as it seems to be owned already, I thought it best to win points with the locals.” Plus, that was just how these things were done. You couldn’t complete the quest before someone told you what the problem was, it was just… unnatural.

“…Understood sir.” Owl two said at last, clearly not agreeing with Ronin’s reasoning. “Shall I have Owl five go clear the mines sir?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Owl five? By herself?” Ronin asked a little shocked, she had said there were something like ten of them. besides, she was part goblin. Would that bother her? He didn’t know, but it seemed important.

“Yes sir, goblins are notoriously easy to kill. It would also be a waste of your time to go their personally… sir.” Ronin translated that into “it would be a waste of MY time,” in his head.

“Thanks for the concern, Owl two.” he said at last. “But I’m new at this, and an easy goblin fight is just what I need to get accustomed to this sort of thing.”

“I see, sir.” The android said, “Then let me give you a prebattle rundown on your rifle.”

“That won’t be nec…”

“Our standard combat rifle is the mark V railgun. It is a bullpup design, which means the rounds fire from behind the trigger, for a more compact size. It has an overall length of twenty-seven inches and holds fifty rounds of a thirty-caliber bullet. The rounds are jacketless and are propelled down the barrel using electromagnetics. The rounds are fired at extremely high velocity but as there is no combustion to propel the rounds, the act of firing is silent. A small beep will sound in your helmet after each round is fired, since, without any recoil it can be hard to tell that the round actually fired.” The android was holding his own rifle out for inspection as he talked, pointing at different areas.

“The mark V railgun fires from an integrated battery system and after all fifty rounds have been fired it must be plugged into the charging port in the drop pod to be recharged and reloaded. Charging time is fifty minutes. By pressing this button here, a targeting reticle will appear in your vision. The gun is connected wirelessly to your eye implants so you will always be able to see where it is pointing even when not being shouldered should you wish.”

“Thank you, Owl two but I…”

“The Mark V railgun has an accuracy range of two hundred yards without any notable bullet drop. After that, with proper compensation for wind and gravity, one can shoot as far as they can see. It is a high-powered rifle for its size and weight, but the drawback is significant. With only fifty rounds available to the shooter, it is not a gun meant to be taken on long campaigns. It is rather a gun designed for base defense and protection details where limited ammunition is required.” The android prattled on for nearly twenty minutes, explaining the most minute and useless facts about the weapon before he was satisfied. Ronin hadn’t realized just how limited the rifles were when he picked them. In the books, they had always lasted as long as they needed to in order to finish the mission. Still, he had heard enough.

“Thank you Owl two,” Ronin said at last. When the robot had finally stopped talking. “I now have a much, much, greater understanding of my weapon then I did before. So, how are we going to proceed when we get to the…”

“Next, let me explain the standard issue non-lethal side arm.” Owl two, having finished with the rifle clipped it onto his equipment harness and drew his side arm. “This is the Non-lethal II. It holds five rounds; each round is a taser hook with a built-in battery. This prevents the need for strings back to the gun itself. Each round has a built-in heart monitor and will automatically stop feeding electricity to the victim once they have lost consciousness. it has an effective range of fifteen feet and…”

He continued talking about the non-lethal II for another thirty minutes. Though the only other thing of note that Ronin picked up was that there was a single extra five round reload in the holster. He did think it was pretty cool that all he had to do to reload the gun was holster it. honestly though, he couldn’t care less about the years or R&D that went into the gun mechanism itself. Eventually, Owl two ran out of things to say and fell silent again.

Not wanting to get him started on another lecture, Ronin didn’t say anything to him this time. Instead, he opened a private channel to Owl five.

“Owl five this is Owl one. how far are we from the mines?” he asked, getting straight to the point.

“Sir, we should be arriving near the entrance in the next five minutes. Should I take care of the den sir?” she asked, no trace of hesitation in her voice. That made Ronin feel a little better. When he had put this goblin den in the valley, he hadn’t realized that one of his team was going to be of goblin descent.

“Thank you Owl five, but no” he said. “I would like to lead the charge on this one myself.”

“Yes sir,” she replied simply. The four of them moved in silence until the mouth of the mine came into view. ducking into a crouch they moved forward at a crawl until they had reached the edge of the tree line. The dense forest didn’t extend all the way to the cliff wall, leaving a clear line of sight to the entrance.

“Owl two, I will be proceeding from here on my own.” Ronin said, once they had stopped their advancement. “I would like to test myself, and goblins seem to be the safest option for me to do that on right now.”

“I understand sir,” Owl two didn’t argue at all, strangely enough. “Just remember my instructions on your weapons and cam if you need back up.” oddly touched when he realized why the android had talked about guns for so long, Ronin nodded his head. looking over at the other two members of his team that were present, he nodded at them too. Then, rifle gripped in both hands, he moved into the mine.

The area around the mine was a mess. Broken rocks and gravel littered the area, making it clear that the miners had just thrown the debris from the mine out into the valley. It looked awful, and Ronin made a mental note to have it cleaned up at some point. He ducked down behind an ore cart as he reached the entrance and stayed there a long moment, looking into the mine. Since he didn’t spot any movement, he slowly advanced inside.

his vision grew dimmer and dimmer as he walked, until he hit the required light level for his night vision to kick in. then the cave lit up around him like it was day. The colors were a little muted, but he could see with perfect clarity. That gave him the confidence to continue deeper into the cave system. Looking around as he walked, he took in the mine. It was fairly well dug, considering who had done the work. Every few feet, a set of foot thick wood beams held up the ceiling. Making him wonder how stable this cave was.

As he walked past another set of beams, he saw movement from behind one of them. quickly turning to look, he found a small green skinned figure. It was clambering to its feet, wiping its eyes with the back of a grimy hand. Without hesitation or conscious thought, Ronin pulled the trigger of his rifle. There was no response from the gun itself, but a small beep in his helmet alerted him that he had indeed fired.

Not that he needed confirmation. The goblin’s chest caved in under the shot, and when the round passed through the goblin it entered the wooden beam, sending out a cloud of shrapnel. The wooden projectiles bounced harmlessly off his armor, but the goblin wasn’t as lucky. The already dead creature was peppered with splinters. They protruded from its back as it dropped, boneless, to the ground.

Taking a look around to be sure the commotion hadn’t alerted any other goblins; Ronin moved forward and turned the goblin over. The first thing he noticed was how small and frail the goblin was. It moved easily in his hands and was soon resting against the wooden support. The creature was small, no more than four feet tall. It was malnourished, bones poking out through the gaunt skin. Reaching out, he pulled the partially rotted, poorly tanned rawhide sack away from the wound. The hole was small and went clean through the chest. it had entered right to the side of the breastbone, near a small lump of flesh.

Frowning, Ronin looked back at the goblin’s face. shock filled his eyes when he realized it was a female. He looked back down at the bullet hole in the emaciated goblin, and his mind jumped back to the caves. His finger pulling another trigger, and Brad’s head exploding. The crippled Smith going down in another spray of blood, and his own frail body being mercilessly beaten by Alexander. Bile rose in his throat as the memories he’d been suppressing flooded back into his vision.

He’d done it again, he’d killed someone. Dropping his rifle, he scrambled for the helmet release catch. Barely getting it off in time, he threw up on the cave floor. His breath was coming in ragged gasps as he continued to throw up. tears and snot flowed freely from his eyes and nose as he wretched. A small voice in his head told him that he was having a panic attack, but he couldn’t focus on it through the horrifying visions that wouldn’t leave his sight.

From Out of nowhere, a hand appeared on his shoulder.