Ronin stood outside the mine with Owl five and the seven goblins they’d previously captured. Owl five was still unhappy that she wasn’t allowed to come on this trip. Her agitation had only grown when Ronin told her that he didn’t plan on taking his rifle.
“Sir.” she said again. “I realize that you grew up in caves and that goblins, on average, aren’t very dangerous but this is irresponsible.” Ronin just nodded his head. He didn’t want to explain his reasoning to her all over again. What she said was accurate; because he had grown up in caves and goblins really weren’t very dangerous. The real reason, however, was that he didn’t want to accidentally kill any more goblins. He still felt terrible for killing that first woman. Besides, the goal of this whole expedition was to earn credits to save Markus. An alive goblin was worth twenty times more to him than a dead one.
“All the more reason for you to bag a big dino by the base and round up the Kaldarrian stragglers.” He said instead of addressing her concerns. Owl five wasn’t as vocal as Owl two, but she didn’t hesitate to speak up when she thought he was making a mistake. He appreciated that quality, although in times like this it did get annoying.
“Very well sir,” she said. Pounding her fist against her chest in salute. “I will join you soon.” without another word she turned and ran away into the forest. After he watched her disappear from view, Ronin turned to take in the rest of his party.
Kaldarr armor, it turned out, had been far too bulky for the diminutive goblins. Added to that, it took far too long to produce in the small fabrication unit built into the drop pod. In the end they’d settled on a flexible leather impregnated with Carbon fiber for added durability. Thin metal plates had been added over the vitals in imitation of the ankylosaur armor. The formfitting leather garb showed off Guts lean musculature, and hugged the ladies curves a little too tightly. The sexually inhibited goblins didn’t even seem to notice, but Ronin sure did. An image of Owl five in that armor surfaced in his mind, before he shook it away. Frowning at the thought, he turned his attention back to the goblins.
Ronin hadn’t felt comfortable arming them yet, so only guts carried a pair of non-lethal II’s on his hips and a small round shield. The rest of the goblins had to make do with belt knives. They didn’t seem to feel slighted when only given knives though. For all of them, it was the first blade they had ever owned. They seemed to take the knife and armor as a symbol of respect. Not being the leader, they weren’t used to getting anything. They had also been loaded down with a backpack; filled with food, clothes and a few other odds and ends.
Checking his own gear, Ronin found that everything was in place. He also had two Non-lethal II’s, one on each hip. In addition, he carried his round shield and short sword in case he needed to fight. He wasn’t trained in the weapons, but he was super humanly strong. He doubted there was anything a goblin could do to him in a fight. Tightening the straps on his own equipment harness, he motioned the group forward. They had five days to map out the tunnels and find new goblin citizens. Before they had to return for the tax collector’s deadline.
Walking inside the mine, he pulled up the small map in the corner of his vision. Ronin didn’t exactly understand how it worked, but it had a feature that allowed him to make maps of the areas he’d already been to. It was of limited value in a forest, other than to point out a path he had taken previously, but it was different in a cave system. Whole tunnels could be revealed. If he came upon a place he’d been before by a different route, he would know it right away. A helpful feature for assassins sneaking into restricted areas. Not only would it help them get back out, but they would have a map of the route they used for later use or to sell. Also helpful for someone goblin hunting, who didn’t want to get lost in an unfamiliar cave.
“We’ll start by completely mapping out the mine section of the cave.” Ronin said as they moved deeper. “Emil said it was a natural cave that they expanded on, but they hadn’t opened it up much. We can go farther in from there.” He’d hoped Guts would be able to take him to where they’d entered the cave, or to where other goblins were likely to be. Unfortunately, none of the goblins could remember how they had gotten inside the cave or how long they had been there. So, the party would just have to search the caves tunnel by tunnel. Ronin preferred it that way, it would give him the opportunity to expand his map more fully.
Ronin felt a little silly as he walked around the mine, trailed by the seven goblins. It took them more than an hour to completely map out the dug out and supported sections of the cave. Yet, not one of them said anything or complained, they just followed behind him as he moved up and down the tunnels. He averted his eyes when they walked past the support pillar where he’d killed the goblin. Not wanting to see the blood stains or the bullet hole in the beam. Having finished the mine portion of the cave, they entered the natural cavern where his team had captured the rest of the goblins.
“Does anything look familiar Guts?” he asked as they entered the open space. Looking around for any sign of more goblins.
“Sorry sir,” Guts said moving up from behind him. “I don’t remember much from before.” The goblin came to a halt beside Ronin and looked around. “Hunter, soft step, go check the perimeter. Do it like Owl five showed you.” the two goblin women moved away from the group and began checking around the room.
The pair Guts had called on were the most competent of the bunch besides himself. Ronin had thought it a funny naming convention at first, but you could usually tell from hearing a goblin’s name what they were like. On average, goblins who were named for a physical characteristic weren’t very impressive. Like broken tooth and one ear, the other two males of the group. They followed orders well and behaved but they didn’t show much initiative. Hunter and soft step in contrast, were named for an area they excelled at. For goblins, an impressive name meant an impressive goblin.
“There is no sign that anyone has been here since we were last here, sir.” Hunter said after a round of the cave and a quick consultation with soft step. Both goblins had their fiery red hair done in a pixie cut, likely to copy Brie’s look.
“Thank you,” Ronin said with a nod. Trying, and only partially succeeding in keeping his eyes on her face. “Would you two take the lead going forward? I’m afraid I’m rather hopeless at tracking.” He felt a little subconscious admitting that, but he needed results now more than he needed to feel important.
“Of course, sir.” Hunter said, clapping her fist to her chest in the salute his team members used. She and soft step then moved into the unexplored tunnel, Ronin and the rest not far behind.
They moved through the darkness, the pair of goblin women walking on either side of the tunnel. they each had a hand on the wall, and Ronin noticed that they were sniffing the air as they moved. “Their night vision must not be as good as mine.” He thought as he began paying attention to the other goblins around him. Sure enough, all of them were touching the wall and sniffing as they walked. From there interactions he knew they could see, but they clearly relied on their other senses too. After thinking about it for a while, Ronin figured it made sense. His eyes were artificial, made with the best tech from the futuristic books he’d read. Their eyes were natural, coming from a race he hadn’t put much thought into creating. other than adding them into his world as cannon fodder.
They walked for hours, moving into each small passage and room they came across. Ronin paced out each open area so that it would be fully visible on his map before they continued. The hours gradually turned into a day. Ronin felt like he could continue for days yet, but he could see the goblins were nearing exhaustion.
“Let’s call it a night guys,” he called out when he saw White hair stumble. She was the oldest goblin here by a large margin and wouldn’t have been able to keep up this pace if she hadn’t been restored to full health by the enhanced water and a weeks’ worth of good eating. Ronin was beginning to regret bringing her along, but he hadn’t wanted to single her out of the group. “Eat up and get some sleep, I’ll keep watch.”
Taking off his helmet, Ronin sat down to eat his own rations. A hunk of hard bread and some dried meat. their diet wasn’t very expansive yet, but the former Kaldarrian slaves were skilled in quite a few areas, so Ronin hoped for more food options soon. sitting down next to him, Guts tore a strip off a piece of jerky.
“This is good,” he said chewing the hard meat. “Being able to eat whenever we get hungry is… amazing.” He was looking out at the small group of goblins as he talked, watching them converse in low tones as they ate. “I hope we find many more of our kind. We won’t make you regret saving us sir.” Having said his peace, Guts stood up and moved to stand watch as his people bedded down. Leaving Ronin with a lot more to think about.
The goblins had been sleeping for three or four hours, huddled up in groups. Ronin found them fascinating to watch, being an interesting mix of human level intellect and animal instinct. Guts had laid down closest to where Ronin was keeping watch. Hunter and Soft step were sleeping together with Song, a short distance away. While White hair, one ear and broken tooth slept in a heap farther down the tunnel.
Ronin assumed they were using how close they slept to him as a status symbol. Allowing anyone observing to know the pecking order of the group at a glance. The sleeping order lined up with how they were named as well. He also noted how the first two groups had gone to bed fully armored, while the trio on the end had stripped down before piling up for bed. Watching them sleeping, Ronin tried to think back. He didn’t think he had ever heard any of them speaking before. They just followed the group around silently, doing as they were told.
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His musings on goblin social norms were interrupted by a scrabbling sound. Rising to his feet with a quick flex of his legs, Ronin looked around. The scrabbling sound was quiet, but in the silence of the cave it seemed louder. Locking his helmet on, Ronin drew his non-lethal II and pulled the shield from his back. Hearing a sound like tumbling pebbles, Ronin looked down the tunnel where White hair and the rest were sleeping. He could see where a small chunk of stone had fallen away from the wall.
With a frown, he moved closer. Another piece of the rock wall tumbled away, and a small head popped out of a newly formed hole. Pulling its head back through the gap, it began chewing around the hole to enlarge the opening. Ronin couldn’t believe it; the creature was actually chewing up the stone. Having made an opening large enough to fit through, the creature crawled out into the tunnel.
Ronin looked at it curiously as it sniffed the air and took in its surroundings. It looked like an old earth rat but was closer in size to a raccoon or a house cat. Finally recognizing it as a stone carver rat, Ronin moved over to wake Guts. He remembered reading about them, but they were such a small part of the story he couldn’t remember the details. Other than they ate stone and absorbed the minerals to make themselves stronger.
“Guts,” he whispered touching the goblin’s shoulder. With a start, the goblin leader sat up.
“Yes sir?” he asked, coming instantly awake.
“Look,” Ronin said pointing toward the stone carver rat. “It just tunneled through the wall, what do…” before he could ask what Guts knew about the creatures, the goblin had jumped to his feet and let out a bellow of warning.
“RATS” he yelled, drawing his belt knife and readying his own shield. Ronin, not sure what all the fuss was about, moved to ask. When another rat scurried out of the tunnel, then a third. As the sleeping goblins scurried to their feet and drew their knives, a veritable flood of the creatures swarmed from the wall. Before anyone could act, the unarmored pile of goblins was swarmed in chittering rat bodies.
With a bellow of rage, Guts charged the swarm. Hunter and soft step right behind him. A deadly melee had broken out before Ronin realized what was happening. Snapping out of his daze, he lifted the non-lethal II. shooting all five rounds into the writhing mass of rats, stunning several. before drawing his short sword and wading in to stand beside Guts.
The cave walls echoed with the chitters of rats and the screams of the unarmored goblins being eaten alive. Ronin and Guts tried to reach the trio, but there were just too many rats… and they were stills streaming out of the wall. Using the two men as shields, Hunter, soft step, and now Song reached around and between them to drive their belt knives into the swarm.
Their bodies were tough, armored with metallic plates where they weren’t covered with thick black fur. Ronin’s sword was bouncing off the plates as often as it was hitting flesh. Thanks to his strength however, even when he hit the armored plates, he was dealing fatal damage. Rats died to each of his swings and to the stabs of Guts and the girls. There were just so many rats, no matter how many they killed more would swarm from the wall.
The screams from inside the pile had fallen silent with many of the rats focused on their meal. There were still plenty left who continued to swarm towards Ronin and guts. A rat sunk its teeth, capable of chewing through stone, into Ronin’s shin. It punctured the armor plates without much resistance. The nanite under armor stopped the bite long enough for Ronin to kill the creature with a swing of his blade, but the situation was getting dire.
“Draw our guns,” He called out to the girls. “Point them at the rats and pull the triggers.” They fumbled at the men’s belts a few times, before each of the girls had a taser pistol in hand. He had to coach them a little more as he fought desperately against the tide but eventually, they figured it out. With a flash of electricity, twenty rounds flew into the writhing mass of stone carver rats. They were packed so tightly together that multiple targets got shocked, per round fired. causing a minor lull in the fighting while the rats thrashed against one another, trying to get away from the taser rounds.
Using the distraction to the fullest, Ronin and Guts rushed in, cutting down rats by the handful. They continued to accrue bites; chunks of their armor being broken away along with pieces of flesh. Yet they persisted, and eventually, the tide of rats slowed and finally halted. The surviving members fleeing back into the tunnel they had exited from.
Ronin, Guts and the ladies flopped onto the ground, gasping for breath and trying to staunch their bites. Ronin had a cyborg’s body that was pumped full of nanites, so he was already healing. Guts also had nanites in his system but not nearly to the same extent. His wounds were closing but very slowly. The girls weren’t so lucky. They had all been bitten at least once, but Song had gotten it the worst. A bite to her forearm that had cracked the bone.
“Drink this,” Ronin said pulling his canteen of enhanced water out. “Finish half the bottle then pass it to Hunter and Soft step to share the rest.” As she followed instructions, movement from the pile of corpses caught everyone’s attention. There were still rats alive in there, they’d been stunned but it was quickly wearing off. Guts made a move towards them with his knife, but Ronin called him back.
“We need to capture a few of them alive.” He called out as the goblin moved in for the kill. Guts growled at the order, and for a moment, Ronin thought he was going to have to use the drone parasite to force compliance. In the end though, he nodded.
“Yes sir,” he said. “How do you suggest we capture them?” it was clear he hoped that Ronin wouldn’t have a way, just as clear, he wasn’t going to make suggestions. It made Ronin wonder if the stone carver rats preyed on the goblins or something to make them loathe them so much.
In the end, Ronin ended up capturing four of the remaining rats himself. They weighed a lot more than he anticipated. Leading him to believe that the plates covering their bodies really were metal. Placing a marker on his map so that they could come back for the corpses, he put the bound rodents in a heavy bag he’d brought along. Picking up the sack, Ronin realized he wouldn’t be able to lug it around with him. At thirty-five to forty pounds apiece, the bag containing four of them weighed in at around one hundred fifty pounds. Eventually, he just found an outcropping near the ceiling and tied the bag off there. Assuming they didn’t die or get taken by other predators, Ronin would pick them up on the way back through.
After that was done, he moved back to the recovering goblins, to find them quite literally licking their wounds. Having dealt with his own injuries back on earth and having helped Markus tend to others who were hurt, Ronin had a basic understanding of first aid. So, making them stop licking themselves, he spent the next thirty minutes cleaning and binding their wounds as best he could. The enhanced water would help prevent infection and increase the healing process, but it didn’t hurt to be thorough.
“There you go, Soft step.” He said patting her shoulder. He’d just finished cleaning and binding a wound in her side. “That should be everyone. Do your injuries need tending too Guts?” he asked his goblin chief, as Soft step put her armor back on. She’d had to expose her upper torso in order for him to treat her wound, but the sight of blood and bone poking out, had his full attention. He didn’t feel any interest at her revealed body, only seeing an injury that needed to be cleaned. His experience with romantic encounters consisted to this point only of what he had read in books, but what had just happened never featured in any of his favorite adventure novels. There was certainly no blood at least in those scenes.
“No sir,” Guts said from his position near the corpse pile. He had taken over guard duty so that Ronin could treat the girls, not knowing anything about first aid himself. “Sir, may I make a request?” he asked, never turning around.
“Of course, Guts, what do you need?” Ronin asked, sitting back tiredly to lean against the wall.
“When we return to base, can you teach me how to do the ‘first aid’ you helped us with?” he seemed worried or embarrassed at asking the question. not knowing what the fuss was about, he just answered normally.
“Certainly Guts,” he said. “Actually, I intend to teach you all everything I can. I also intend to learn everything I can too. If I’d known what that creature was when it came through the wall, we might have been able to save everyone.” He admitted, looking at the fallen bodies of White hair, One ear and Broken tooth. He shouldn’t have brought them. if he’d known more about goblin naming conventions and hierarchy, he wouldn’t have. So many mistakes. He just kept making them, one after the next.
“We will learn together,” he continued at last, looking at his remaining followers. “I intend to build the valley into a goblin city. In order to do that I need your help, all your help.” He said looking each of them over as he spoke. “We will need to learn, and overcome, together to make that happen.”
“Yes sir!” the four remaining goblins said in unison, clapping their fists against their chests in salute. Ronin looked up at them, as he’d been speaking, they had all gathered around him. he was almost shocked to see the fire in their eyes. he’d all but condemned himself before them, yet they seemed ready to follow him into another life-or-death battle immediately.
“Get some rest you four,” he said at last returning their salute. “We are running out of time, and I’d like to at least find some signs of goblins before we leave.” Once they had taken his advice and bedded back down, Ronin collected the fallen goblin’s gear. He put it up next to the bag filled with living rats to be collected later and drew his sword.
Looking over the blade, he saw how bent and blunted it had become. If it wasn’t for the superior quality of the materials that had gone into its construction it would have broken under the strain. Looking down at the cracked and crumbling plates of his armor he couldn’t help but get angry at himself again. he needed a different weapon and armor. his fighting style, what there was of it anyway, didn’t line up with the equipment he’d chosen in the beginning.
“I’ll have to talk to Owl two about it,” he thought as he tried to relax after the latest fight. he decided he’d give the goblins a full six hours of sleep. He needed the rest too, although he wouldn’t be sleeping. Six hours of quiet time, it would be the first he’d had since before his life on earth had ended. Leaning back against the wall, he kept his eyes trained on the tunnel, while his mind drifted off into his future plans.
When the time elapsed, he woke his followers. Giving them time to eat more hard bread and dried meat, he looked over their wounds. His own and guts wounds had all but healed, but the girls were still wounded. The enhanced water would help but it would be days yet until they were fully recovered.
“Ok,” he said at last having rebound their wounds. “I’d like to send you back to rest, but I still need your help here. Hunter, Soft step, you are much better at scouting than I am so I will need you to take the lead again. if there is any danger, fall back behind Guts and me. Here…” taking the non-lethal II’s from his hips, he handed them to his new scouts. “You handled these pretty well before. When we get back, I will have you work with Owl five, she can teach you more than I can.” Turning to Song he continued.
“Song, you are too badly injured to take point with the others. so, stay between me and Guts. I will be behind Hunter and Soft step ready to jump in should we encounter any more hostiles and Guts will follow behind to protect our rear.” Having finished giving out orders, the party got moving again.
They didn’t find anything for the entirety of that day, only adding more of the tunnel system to Ronin’s map. That night passed uneventfully, and Ronin was finally able to take a turn sleeping. He hadn’t needed it yet physically, but he had been mentally and emotionally drained. He’d awoken feeling much better, even if it had only been for two hours.
They hadn’t walked an hour after breakfast that morning, when they heard screaming and growls from up ahead. Looking at each other warily, the ladies moved back, while Guts and Ronin took their place in the lead. Weapons drawn, they rounded the last bend in the tunnel, and found themselves in a scene of utter chaos.