“So… The Goblins have nukes then? Did they happen to dig up one of ours or something? We don’t have any in Kentucky, do we?” Is the first thing I have to ask to break the silence in the room, everyone eyes on the screen showing a freaking mushroom cloud in the very city that we have been trying to reclaim.
“None that the American people need to know about.”
“… I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that and move on… SO, either the little gobos have nukes, or they can use magic to make explosions like nukes.”
“It’s not an actual nuke.” Someone answers for me.
Turning around, I find a guy dressed in a suit, his name tag naming his as Dr. Farandole. Seeing the General and I looking his way, he elaborates. “The yield is far too low to be one of ours. Going by the mushroom cloud, this explosion is only about a quarter of the power of Big Boy, one of the ones we dropped on Japan. Our current models are far more devastating…” He trails off a bit at the end there as we just keep staring at him.
The General eventually picks things back up, “Regardless of how powerful it is, it doesn’t change the fact that they just nuked our city. A quarter yield or not, that is still enough fire power to wipe this base of the map and kill everyone here. We need to figure out the source of this attack and eliminate it. If, in the worst case, that this was done by a single Goblin, then all they would need to do is sneak up on us and we would be dead before we even knew what happened.”
“General, we have emergency shelters, right?”
“We do, at our current population, we should be able to hold everyone, but the problem would be getting everyone secured in time. We currently lack an early warning system in case of an attack on this scale.”
“Lovely…”
“Lain, we are going to operate under the assumption that this was done using magic. I would rather not entertain the alternatives. Using your own magic, could you do something similar to this?”
“You are asking if I can drop nukes?”
“Yes.”
“… Huh… Honestly, no. I have no idea how I would even go about doing that. My magic is all about manipulating darkness and void. I’ve only just started figuring out how to make my shadows delete stuff, and I’m not very good at it yet. Making explosions is currently beyond me. Hmmm… Looking at what happened, whoever did this is probably a Fire Mage… Can you bring the slides back to before the explosion?”
Watching the explosion go back in reverse, I have them stop as the flames in the city all suddenly go out.
“Stop, right there. The whole city was ablaze right until this moment, and then it is all gone. The next, there is the light there. That’s the one that did this, and whoever they are, I don’t think that they can just pull a nuke out of their ass whenever they want.”
“Elaborate for us, Lain.”
“Well, for me, while I can make my own shadows, I have to expend my own mana from my core to do so. Instead, it is a lot easy for me to just take resources from the surroundings. At all times, I have my shadows stored on my person for when I need them, and I can always pull more from around me to fuel my attacks. The Goblin that did this, they need setup first… Fire spreads easily enough, so by lighting a place on fire, they are adding to their fuel sources, then they can take it all, compress it to a ridiculous extent, and release it all in a single blast… Their Field must be massive though and has to cover the entirety of the downtown area…”
“Hmm, so the possibility of an explosion like this getting dropped on us by surprise has diminished then, but not been removed outright.”
“Mhm, if they were going to bomb us, they would need to set the surroundings on fire first, most likely. Which is probably their general strategy. Sky told me about her vision and from what she said, everywhere they go, there is always fire.”
“We’ll need to consider anti arsonist strategies for our defenses. How is our fire department doing, are their trucks all up and running properly.” General Louise asks one of the men.
They go back and forth discussing numbers and schedules for repairs that should have been done months ago for a while, until eventually, he gives out some orders.
“I want most of our available tankers deployed near the northern wall in case they are needed. Along the walls from the northeast to the northwest, have the men construct as many water reservoirs as they can. Anything from barrels to big holes in the ground, I don’t care, so long as we have plenty of water available. Gather as many fire extinguishers as we reasonably can and have them spread along the wall as well. As for the walls themselves, get some people to work on making them as fireproof as we can get them. I imagine that I don’t have to explain to you all how useless a wooden wall would be at stopping a fire.”
“What about the winter. It is freezing out there. We are already having a hard enough time keeping our own men from getting frostbite while they guard the walls.”
I pipe up at this, “And we will have a hard time keeping them from getting burned alive when tens of thousands of Goblins come attacking, throwing fireballs everywhere like a wizard at a D&D table. If it is between having some cold fingers and being burned alive, I think the choice is an obvious one.”
General Louise simply nods his head before having us move on. “On the subject of attacking the Goblins. I believe I speak for everyone here when I say that it would be better that we eliminate them before they ever reach our gates. Right now, the idea of an artillery bombardment is sounding about right. How are our munitions looking?”
“For leveling the downtown area, sir? We have more than enough long-range high yield munitions, we just need a spotter to call in our shots. The issue is in the number of guns that we have that can reach that range. Most of our artillery on hand is intended for closer ranges and precision strikes on heavily armored targets.”
“With what we have, how long would it take for us to level the city?”
“… A full day of sustained bombardment, sir.”
I raise my hand at this. “They would scatter and start attacking us long before we kill them all that way. And we can’t be certain if we got the nuke dropper or not. We would just be pushing them to attack us sooner rather than later.”
General Louise turns to look at me, “What makes you think that they aren’t already on their way to attack us right now?”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“There is almost five feet of snow out there, and Goblins are even shorter than I am... If I was them, I would wait for the snow to melt first. They have a whole city that they can hide out in up there, plus all the monsters they killed for food. But if we start bombing them right now, they are going to have to move.”
“You’re correct, my thoughts exactly.”
“Hm?”
“If we are going to win, we need to do it while we have the advantage. Force them to come to us on our terms. First, we prepare our defenses so as to counter fire based attacked and to eliminate large numbers of small enemies. We’ll move more of our machine gun nests to the north, and I want us to triple the killing fields. More land mines, claymores, C4, more pitfalls, more everything. I want it turned into a no-man’s-land that can blow everything sky-high if we have to. And I don’t want to hear any complaints about the ground being frozen, just cover it all in snow if you have to.
“Secondly is our attack. We will start off with targeted assaults on priority targets for the bombardment, with our first priority being on eliminating the nuclear Goblin, second priority is to thin their numbers and force them to come to us on our terms. Should the artillery fail to eliminate the first target, they will have to be assassinated.” He says as he looks towards me.
“Yes sir. And for the spotter? I don’t have any experience with doing anything like that.”
“That won’t be a problem, your men will be able to handle that. Sergeant Frank Smith and Corporal Xander Anderson both have experience in artillery and as radio operators. They will assist you as your spotters. You’ll be going in with a small team and infiltrate behind enemy lines to coordinate our attack from there. Your priority is going to be on stealth until the fireworks go off.”
“Yes sir. How many can I bring with me?”
“Make it a five-man team, including yourself. I want the rest of your Demons here to be deployable as needed.”
“Yes sir, I’ll be taking Sam and Nathaniel with me then.”
“Good, Lieutenant Garfield, call for them to get here now and to get suited up. Full deployment gear, and I want two radio packs prepared in case one breaks.”
“Yes sir.”
“Some heavy equipment as well please! Normal rifles aren’t going to cut it. If we are going out there, we might as well go out with the intent to deal some damage.”
“Mhm, you’ll have full access to the armory. Grab whatever you want and make it count.”
“Yes sir, thank you sir!”
“Good, you’re dismissed for now. Lieutenant, lead her to the armory and then see them out to the gates. Lain, stop by the FOB on your way to the city to get an update of the situation, keep radio communication to mission priority and emergency use only. We will contact you after you are in position, and everything is ready on our end.”
I stand up from my chair and snap a salute, “Yes sir.” and then promptly head out. As I am leaving, they continue the meeting, tossing around a bunch of numbers and projections. A bunch of stuff that I am very glad that I don’t have to sit through or try and contribute to. They want me to go assassinate a Goblin? That fine by me, as long as I don’t have to worry too much about the logistics and can just leave the fine details and plan making to other people.
…
Arriving at the armory, it doesn’t take long for Sam, Nathaniel, Frank, and Xander to arrive, being driven in by escorts that had picked them up from home. They all look sleepy like they just got pulled out of bed, which reminds me of something that I am not proud of, because it makes me jealous.
While I don’t need to, and regretfully can’t, sleep. My Demons on the other hand do. If needed, they can easily go about three days without sleep and not be affected very much by it at all. It isn’t until the fourth day that they start to suffer from sleep deprivation. Or, if they want to. They can sleep on a normal schedule, apparently only really needing about four hours of sleep a day. The reason why they are sleepy now is because we just got back from a three-day training mission, and part of it was that no one was allowed to sleep. So, it only makes sense that they would have been sleeping at this hour.
And again, as much as I hate myself for this. I am jealous of them because they can sleep. Part of me wishes that they didn’t need to at all; to be just like me. But thankfully, the rest of me is happy that they don’t have to learn what it is like to never be able to sleep again. To not have the occasional blissful break away from awareness. To not be able to actually SLEEP with your partner…
Damnit, now I need some Sky cuddles. I just made myself depressed… I’ll make do with some Demon hugs.
Watching them get close, I push down my bout of depression and move forward to give them each a big hug and a, “Good Morning Sleepy Heads!”
Sam and Nathaniel happily accept my hugs and even returns them with an extra squeeze and a joke. Frank lets me hug him and pats me on the back. While Xander just backs away from me as I come at him with my arms spread.
“Come on, Xander! It’s just a hug. Not like I’m going to bite you or anything. I only do that in the bedroom, hahaha!”
“No thank you, ma’am. We work together, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but that doesn’t make us friends.”
“Mmrrr~ I’m going to get you to hug me eventually. It’s not like you hate me, right?”
“No, I don’t hate you. I just don’t want that kind of relationship with you yet.”
“No relationship, just buddies that hug. Come on, bring it in.”
“I don’t want to be buddies.”
“How about bros that chest bump?”
“I’ll pass.”
“Acquaintances that hug in private while no one is looking?”
“I’m good.”
“Fist bump?”
“Mmm... No.”
“How about a slap on the ass before the big game?”
“That sounds worse than fist bumping though?”
“Hugs?”
“You went back up to hugs again.” He says with a breath of a laugh.
“Ok then… Coworkers that share a firm handshake before a business meeting?”
“… That is at least better than ass slapping.” He says with a shrug.
“I’ll take it! Put it here partner, we have work to do!”
He hesitantly reaches out and accepts my hand, giving it a firm shake before letting go.
“Yes! Progress! Took a couple of weeks to get a handshake out of you, but soon enough, you’ll be another hug buddy.”
“I don’t think I will…”
Off to the side, Sam and Nathaniel silently chant, “One of us. One of us. One of us.”
He just turns and gives them both the middle finger before asking me, “So, we have a job to do?”
I look up to him and give him a big smile, glad to have made a little progress in adopting my very own introvert. I can tell that my efforts aren't really making him uncomfortable or anything yet, he's just shy. Through our shared connection that I have with all of my Demons, I can feel that he actually finds this situation to be a bit funny, but also embarrassing, mostly landing on amusement. If his feeling had taken a turn for the worse, and I found that I was making him uncomfortable, I would have stopped. But I get the honest feeling that he is sort of enjoying this in a way. It will take some time, but we'll eventually become friends. I'm not sure if we will get to the point that we can hug, but I am holding out hope.
“Yup! We’re starting a war. Going to go and assassinate some gobos and spot for artillery. I’ll give you guys the mission briefing on the way out, but for now. We need to load up on plenty of toys. You guys are finally getting to use guns again. So, feel free to load up on as much as you can carry. The boss said we can take whatever we want, so go nuts! Also, Sam, you used to work in demolitions, right?”
“Yes, I did Boss.”
“Good, load up on as much C4 and whatever else you need in case we need to drop a fucking skyscraper on somebody. The city is now free for destruction if we need to, so not breaking stuff is no longer a concern. We can cut loose and have fun with this.”
“Ooh, yesssssss! I call dibs on the grenade launcher!”
“Excellent! I love the enthusiasm! Let’s go team, that’s exactly the kind of energy this mission needs!”
Off to the side, the Lieutenant, just asks, “I thought this was supposed to be a stealth mission?”
“It is, it is. But once the shells start dropping and all hell breaks loose, we are going for maximum shock and awe before we get the hell out of there. I don’t want to be getting swarmed like that kaiju I saw in the pictures.”
“Kaiju?” Sam asks excitedly.
“Yeah, there were freaking Kaiju living in the city apparently! All dead now though, Goblins killed them with a nuke… I’ll tell you about on the way there.” I say sadly, I like Kaiju after all. They're cool.
Xander just looks at me with a weird face as we all walk into the armory. “The Goblins have a nuke? What?”
“I know, right?”
As we keep bullshitting and stocking up on weapons, I try to keep a happy face on even though I know that I am about to probably be walking into hell here soon. The others can probably feel my unease, but they thankfully don't comment on it.
Even if it is a Goblin, I do not want to meet whatever the hells can drop nukes on fucking kaiju… Let’s just hope that the artillery will take care of it for us. Gods, I just want to cuddle with Sky, why the hell are these Goblins even coming this way for!?