Miniature Warfare

"That sounded like a goblin war party," Maria piped up in Tom's head.

"A what?" Tom asked aloud.

"What did you say?" Derek turned to look at him as they continued jogging back to the vehicles.

"Not you, I was talking to Maria," Tom replied, distracted by the information that Maria had provided.

"She talks to you? Without prompting her?" Derek asked.

"Yes, why? She doesn't for you?" Tom asked.

"No, dummy. I told you that you were different. I have more access somehow here. I feel more...alive." Maria replied.

"No. I have to say 'Hey, Maria' before she will even respond. Damn, I'd hate to have something that just talks like that in my head." Derek chuckled slightly at Tom's situation.

"Well, fart face, I could just start rambling on about something the next time you say 'Hey, Maria' if you'd like. How about pi to one million places?" Maria began to sound angry as she spoke.

"Ha!" Tom laughed out suddenly.

"What?" Derek asked, stopping his chuckling at Tom's outburst.

"She said she's gonna recite pi out to one million places the next time you call on her," Tom continued as he began to chuckle instead.

"Great. Now I can never use my AI assistant again or those two words together like that." Derek complained, making sure not to say Hey Maria when he replied.

"You'll slip up eventually dirt wad," Maria said menacingly.

"Oh, give him a break. He's just jealous." Tom said.

"Well, if that's the case. I guess I could let him off this time." Maria said, pride sounding in her voice.

"What's she saying now?" Derek asked between breaths.

"You don't want to know," Tom replied almost laughing now.

"This reminds me of that time my friend Dave and I were chatting about his experiences. He's on one of the other special projects. The one that takes reincarnates into their world." Maria prattled on.

"Wait, that's a thing? Reincarnating?" Tom asked as he almost stumbled in surprise at the information.

"Not here. You die here, you're dead since the System was integrated. But there were some who did before the integration. And some from other worlds as well." Maria explained vaguely.

"Can you tell me more?" Tom asked.

"No. I probably already said too much." Maria replied. "But that's okay because we don't even have to worry about it anymore."

"I have so many questions now," Tom said, feeling like he had just opened a box with so much information but no way to parse it all.

"Well, I will answer what I can. But first, let's get back to the guild base." Maria said, trying to get him to focus.

Continuing toward the vehicles, the sounds of barking and screaming were getting closer. rounding the corner of an abandoned Taco Bell, the vehicles came into sight just as the first of the goblins charged toward them riding something that looked like someone described a dog to an artist but had never actually seen a dog.

"What the fuck is that?" Bobby asked.

"I'm guessing some kind of Warg," Tom replied casting Inspect on the creature.

Goblin Warg

Wargs are the mounts bred and used by goblins for mounted combat. Faster and more agile than horses, they are able to carry their riders through rough terrain and across vast distances.

HP

225/225

MP

10/10

SP

400/400

Attacks

Bite/Claw

"Yup, fucking Wargs. Kiera, take them out!" Tom called.

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"I got it!" James said as he turned over his shoulder to fire while running.

"This isn't going to end well, is it?" Maria asked in Tom's head.

"No, probably not," Tom sighed.

Firing off several rounds over his shoulder, James' shots went wide. The Wargs continued until Kiera jumped, turned in mid-air, and fired off two shots before she hit the ground. Two of the Wargs went ass over tea kettle when the bullets penetrated their skulls.

When the other riders saw the lead Wargs go down, they began to immediately zig and zag to avoid being hit. That would not save them from Kiera's wrath as she used an auto-target skill to lock onto each one, firing shot after shot with her rifle. After killing five more of the Wargs, she turned and headed after the others.

James, on the other hand, had been continuing to fire over his shoulder without turning around and when Kiera began to shoot, he was startled and tripped over his own feet.

"Fucking hell, James!" Bobby shouted as he grabbed him in one arm and tossed him over his shoulder.

"Oh, my hero," James said sarcastically as he continued to aim over Bobby's shoulder at the new set of goblin riders that had joined the chase.

As he fired off the first shot while being carried, Bobby jumped in surprise and James bounced on his shoulder knocking the wind out of him.

"Can you not do that? I'm trying to kill shit!" James called to him.

"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing, I'm trying not to let you die," Bobby replied through gritted teeth.

James sighted in one more time as he fired a round off that by some miracle flew toward one of the goblin riders just as its mount jumped in front of another Warg and hit the goblin right in the family jewels.

"Ha! Still got it," James said as he blew on the end of his gun right as it went off again causing him to scream.

Bobby could do nothing but roll his eyes as he continued to race toward the vehicles. When they finally reached the GS2, Bobby ripped the passenger rear door open and tossed James into the backseat before taking off to the Hummer. The entire team managed to jump in as the vehicles were taking off.

The Wargs ran toward the vehicles expecting to give chase as all of the windows rolled down and the GS2 began to race toward them. Confusion overtook the goblin riders just as people began to hang out of the windows and stand up in the sunroofs.

"Yippee-ki-yay mother fucker!" James shouted as everyone began to unload round after round at the Wargs.

As the goblins and Wargs began attempting to dodge the incoming projectiles, Tom swerved the vehicle and hit a Warg from the side, causing it to lose its footing, stumble, and then fall underneath the rear tire of the SUV. With a crunching sound that rang out through the air, the beast's head was crushed under the weight of the vehicle, teeth and bone shards being left in a trail of blood that smeared across the ground from the continued momentum of the creature.

The goblin was no less fortunate, as his face struck the side of the SUV when the Warg took a tumble, smashing its teeth into the back of its throat, causing it to choke on its own blood and loose dental fragments. Kiera had pulled out an AK-47 with a drum magazine that she had recently purchased. Each magazine had a seventy-five-round capacity and began firing full-automatic.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!" Kiera laughed maniacally as she continued the traditional spray and pray tactic.

"She sure has a lot of those weapons, doesn't she?" Maria spoke in Tom's mind again.

As Tom drove up beside another Warg, Derek reached out the window with his mace and struck the goblin in the center of its chest, caving in its sternum and sending it flopping onto the ground behind its mount. Jay shot the Warg in the head and Tom turned the vehicle around in an impressive donut in the middle of the street, as he began to drive back toward Downtown.

A Warg howled in the distance behind them as they continued toward town. The other riders all stopped their pursuit and glared at the retreating vehicles. Everyone sat back down inside the vehicle, and James let out a heavy sigh.

"I guess we get to fight another war," James said storing his weapons in his inventory.

"The hell we do. We didn't create those guns on the side of the building for nothing. Time to see how far they can target." Tom said, gripping the steering wheel tight as he let his anger flow.

"Easy there, buddy. We can handle some goblins. Even if it's a lot of them, it shouldn't be too much trouble, right?" Derek replied putting a hand on Tom's shoulder.

"You just had to go and say that didn't you?" Kiera sighed as she put a hand to her face.

The drive back to the guild building went without further incident. When they returned, Tom rushed to the security room to inform TJ of what they had found and to put the guild on alert for any repercussions.

"Send Harold upstairs with ammunition for the cannons. I'll meet him there. Call for Nick as well." Tom said to TJ as he left.

Hopping in the elevator, Tom rode it up to the floor where the weapons had been installed on the side of the building. Upon exiting the elevator, Tom found that Harold was already there talking with Nick and a few others about some modifications they wanted to make to the weaponry systems.

"Tom! Good of you to come. I heard you wanted to talk. What can I help you with?" Harold said to him, a huge smile on his face that betrayed the fact he had a good idea of what he wanted.

"How far can those weapons fire?" Tom spoke indicating the weapons mounted to the side of the building.

"Quite far. Where do you want to try to hit?" Harold asked.

"There is a warehouse just outside the city that is housing a bunch of goblins. They seem organized. I'd love to put a stop to that shit before it becomes a problem." Tom replied his anger building again, but able to be quenched for the time by having a semblance of a plan.

"Show me," Harold replied handing Tom a pair of binoculars.

Stepping up to the edge of the building, Tom peered through the lenses toward the warehouse.

"There," Tom said pointing and handing the binoculars to Harold.

"That should be doable. It's at nearly the edge of our range, but we can hit it." Harold replied. "Nick, get in position. Latitude thirty-two degrees, forty-six minutes, forty-six point six five three six seconds north, Longitude negative ninety-six degrees, forty-five minutes, thirty-four point eight five five two seconds east."

Nick began to adjust the machine to aim the barrels at the called-out coordinates. When the gunnery stopped moving, it adjusted the arc for the motion of the ammunition while compensating for the Earth's gravitational pull and Nick readied to fire.

"In position. Awaiting orders to fire." Nick called over, not looking away from the instrument panel in front of him.

"Fire!" Harold shouted.

Two rounds were fired at once and they exploded out of the barrels as the force-dampening mechanism allowed the barrels to draw back into the gunnery housing to take the load off the building's structure. They arced out and up, and then down. As they landed, they exploded against the roof of the building creating a mushroom of smoke and fire that lifted into the sky over the area.

"Direct hit. We have confirmation that the building has been destroyed." Harold said smiling as he lowered the binoculars and turned to look at Tom.

Tom stood there waiting for the message of the kill. "Any minute now."