Thankfully, despite my severe injuries my Standing Level of 2 let me regenerate some of the damage that I have sustained. While I lay on the floor with my flickering mana shield around me, Captain Torran and Tlokbur take time to secure the floor we are on. It takes me several minutes to regenerate and it is quite frankly fascinating seeing my body so rapidly heal, but without an iota of magic aiding the process. 

By the time my damages have been healed, Torran steps over to me and reaches out with his mummified arm. I look at it warily before I grasp it and he helps me to my feet. "Man, Glyphie I was worried for you. When those two bootlickers shot you, I was sure you were a gonner. But before they could finish you off that shield appeared around you. Was that another magic thingy?" Torran has, what I have now learned to recognize as, genuine concern in his voice as he speaks to me. 

I am inclined to distrust him of course and ponder what agenda he is secretly working for, all my centuries of life have taught me that this is how sapient beings operate with each other. Everything is a transaction of power, a means to an end to secure a goal, always tainted with a secretive agenda that goes at the expense of the other party. But I know that the people manning the Incredulous strangely enough, do not seem to think like this at all. Clearly, they must be aberrations, but aberrations or not that is how these people operate.

So I answer, "Yes that was a lesser manashield that I had suspended. One of several spells I prepared before I came here, this one activated because I was knocked unconcious." I wince and rub my chest absently where I am still grievously burned, breathing is harder than I anticipated so I just finish my explanation with a nod. "Speaking is difficult at present."

Torran looks at me for a few moments with a strange expression on his face before he smiles and slaps my shoulder. "I mean of course it is, you are down to what? 30 health? Like I would not be walking around and talking if I had sustained that kind of heat." Torran looks back towards a corridor that is somehow unbloodied, he stiffens for a few seconds before he nods and says. "Understood Nammy, we are taking Glyphie to get him stitched up. Then we will come up to you." 

And with that said Torran grabs me and practically carries me down the corridor and into a room similar to the medical bay on the Incredulous. I can only splutter in outrage and before I reply he says. "Namatha is finished with the Administrators, their confession is recorded and their secret files are extracted. I think Mary have taken out the brunt of the corporate security, and well the locals and their monsters have probably made short work of the facility itself. The external security just "happened" to be offline today, so I doubt storming this place was as hard as our allies expected it would be."

Ahhhh so my crewmates have been doing more than I expected when it comes to preparing for the assault. I knew that the octo-, no that Morgera had infiltrated and subverted their orbital weaponry. So that the skies would not belong to anyone come the assault on the various Shieldmaiden facilities on the planet. But they must have done more to prepare than what both myself and Vles had been told about.

My analysis of the events leading up to this battle is interrupted as an almost ecstatic cool feeling flows through my body. Torran is using his metallic arm to apply a transluscent paste to my burned skin, and I both see and feel my health points rapidly shoot up to acceptable levels. "Welp, that should be it. Morgera might quibble about this patchjob, but it should keep you on your feet as we get to the finale." He pats me on the back before he turns to walk out of the room.

I follow the Captain back through the corridor until we reach the chamber where we had fought the mercenaries. All in all I must admit that this battle feels anticlimatic, I am pleased that my life was not overly risked in this endeavour. Yet, I had expected more resistance what we had faced. I still have several spells linked to my aura, which I presume I now must have to reabsorb into my body. If this is the best that this world have to offer in the terms of resistance, then I can easily rise back and sieze my Godhood once more.

Tlokbur lumbers out of side corridor and joins us before the elevator. "Yeah, I have checked the surveilance system of this place and I have also paged Morgie. The fight for this place is essentially over, the office people and other non-combatants have surrendered.  Cyberbeasts and resistance soldiers are patroling the corridors, and a now significantly better armed force is holding the perimeter around this place."

I am midly surprised by the more formal tone that Tlokbur is using, but then I notice that he is wearing his pink bow. That explains the change in demeanor. I turn my attention back to the elevator as it's doors open with a woosh and the three of us step in. When we exit the elevator at the top floor of the building, which Tlokbur informs me is known as the "penthouse", there are no troopers waiting to ambush us.

We step through far more luxurious and opulent environs than what is afforded those on the floors beneath this place. Beings less accustomed to the trappings of wealth then I would be distracted by the various relics casually displayed in this place. I on the other hand am happy to ignore most of the pointless finery, and only harvest a few artifacts that sticks out in my Occult Eye spell.

We wander until we reach what seems to be some kind of private office. Inside of the room there are three pale skinned older human males, all blindfolded, bound, and with balls inside of their mouths. Namatha steps towards us with a noticeable amount of cosmetic products on her face, but beyond that dressed in her normal clothing and in good health. The three males seem relatively unharmed, but they are clearly distressed judgning by their wiggling and their grunts.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"I got these little piggies to spill their secrets and more important reject all culpability on their end and put it on Shieldmaiden. We can leave them here and have our charming allies among the locals decide their fate. Their confession along with the pertinent files are going to be dumped on the Veb, and they have already been sent to various pangalactic courts and news organizations. So, we should see what happens to these corporate bitches soon ENOUGH." Namatha explains all of this with a broad smile on her face before she turns around to stomp one of the three Administrators in the groin.

"In other words, now is the time for us to leave." Torran says simply as he looks over at the collapsed man on the floor, who's grunts of pain are obscured by the ball gagging him. Tlokbur pipes up from behind us as the doorway into the office is too narrow for her. "We don't want the rebellion here to be sullied by being overshadowed by our involvement. This is a battle for the story after all and the better story is that the locals defeated the corporate invaders from Shieldmaiden by themselves."

I must admit I am quite surprised by the conclusion that my crewmates reach. Adventurers and Outlaws from my world would be all too eager to take credit for their adventures, but here we are just leaving the planet. And as far as I am aware we are not even getting compensated for our troubles on this planet. I am not unhappy about this mind you as my curiosity about the Goblins have been mostly sated, and I have grown significantly from a magical perspective. The only thing I am curious about is something I ask Namatha as we quietly make our exit from the penthouse, "So Misses Namatha, how did you secure the Administrators? There were no signs of battle as far as I can tell when we entered here." 

Namatha just laughs at me in response, it like Torran's laugh is a very light and easy one. She winks at me before she boxes me on the shoulder. "I meaaan, I am a therapist and a sex worker Glyphie. It would be an insult to all my brothers, sisters, and siblings who share my craft if I could not wrap some middle management asshats around my pinky. Getting the three of them to agree to a "special morning session" in the top office here was not exactly difficult." And with that explanation, she wanders ahead of us and into the elevator.

It takes us some time to extricate ourselves from the facility without running into either Cyberbeasts or Goblin soldiers. When we come out to the hangar where we had parked our ships, I see several charred wrecks surrounding the Incredulous. Mara is leaning against the exterior of the ship, her clothing and hair soaked with blood and gore.  In spite of her grim coating, Mara does give us all a smile when we arrive. "I take it that we are good to go?" 

"Yep, the bootlickers have been taken care of, and we better get scarce so we don't get any credit or any spotlight," Torran says with a nod to her and he flicks his metal arm towards the ship. The cargo hold ramp descends and we enter the ship without any bravado. It only takes us a few moments to get the Incredulous up in the air and out into the atmosphere. It takes a bit more maneuvering to get us docked to the space station where Morgera is stationed, but when we do he elegantly slips into the ship. I notice that he is wearing a much lighter Golem body than the much more brutish frame I am used to.

From there we quickly enter No-Space at the edge of the space system. The moment we enter No-Space that is when I am confronted by an extremely curious and irate crew. Who are demanding all sorts of answers to questions I have no interest in answering. The subsequent interrogation takes the crew long into the night before they are left satisfied by my answers. What interested me the most throughout all of it was studying how Torran's eldritch ascension into a Cultist has given him the ability to drain life energy through his new appendage.

After this the crew and I enter into a form of restful stasis after our long stay on Brynhildr 565, I do not waste this time of course. I spend most of my time learning more about this strange universe and further developing my powers. Tlokbur encourages me to test out my new "Data Bomb" spell, and with her guidance, I finally manage to see it's true potential as a tool in this world.

The stasis is broken two weeks after we left the planet behind us. Morgera, Tlokbur, Torran, Mary, and I are eating our midday meal in the common room for a change. Our light conversation is interrupted as Namatha storms into the room from the cockpit. "The fucking bitches are getting away with it!" She flicks her hand out and before us in the air three images flickers into the air with several headlines appearing. "Despite allegations of several abuses of Indigenous Aliens, Shieldmaiden Incorporated have refused culpability. Shieldmaiden's board of directors and major shareholders unavailable for comment, as they are in seclusion on Valkyrie 10. Planet overseer Hayrold Jenkins accepts responsibility for abuses of Brynhildr 565 indigenous aliens. Charges against Shieldmaiden are dropped in face of new evidence in the case."

As the images flicker out of existence the room is silent and I notice how disgruntled the entire crew looks. Based on what I managed to decipher the Merchant-Princes of Shieldmaiden, managed to avoid being convicted by the courts using their money and influence. Annoying, but not exactly an insurmountable challenge. Yet the crew looks downcast at this news, so I suppose it is up to me to save them as usual. I open my mouth in what I hope is an encouraging and warlike grin as I say. "Well we tried to take revenge on your enemies your way, why do we not try to take care of them in a more...direct manner this time." The others look to me and I can feel eldritch lightning crackling around my fingers as their own faces light up with smiles of their own.