The planet, Meesach, was a world caught in the grip of terror. As an interstellar-grade world, one would expect its people capable of fending off the beasts that arose on it. But, none were prepared for the rise of the Ravenous Spikers.

The four-legged beasts, with long faces filled with razor-like teeth, came upon the people of Meesach with voracious hunger and no mercy. The Ravenous Spikers gained their name from their long and agile tails. Within each tail, dozens of long spikes, as hard as any interstellar armor, waited to be unleashed on their prey from great distances. And in competition with kinetic firearms, the spikes proved equally deadly. Even interstellar-grade power armor couldn't protect one entirely from these deadly projectiles.

The natives of the planet had been reluctant, at first, to petition the mercenaries of Juniper Station for aid. They believed that, while difficult, the Ravenous Spikers could be managed. That their military could suppress the growing population of beasts. This assumption proved tragically false. The reproduction rate of the Ravenous Spikers exceeded all reason.

Finally, the mercenaries were called in. And, while they managed to protect the population centers, they were unable to push into the heart of Spiker territory. The mercenaries of Juniper Station grew to fear the deadly beasts and refused to fight as desperately as was necessary. That was until a ragtag group of, largely terrestrial grade armed, mercenaries entered the fray.

Gol D came out of the teleportation array with a flash of blue light. He looked back to see his party; a healer, a guardian, and two more damage dealers in addition to himself. They'd been with him since the early days of Ruun when that bastard had sent him on fetch quest after fetch quest. Not unlike this time.

A smirk took the barbarian's face. It was good to have work to do. And the quest, [Butchers of Meesach] was right up his alley. Still, the cheapskate hadn't offered them any credits for the quest.

Gol D thought for a moment. "Go, look for quests. Let us know what you find."

The party spread out to explore the compound they'd teleported to. The base was in a terrible state and seemed to be a forward operating outpost. Its walls rose dozens of feet into the blue sky. The interior was composed of industrial prefabricated buildings of drab gray shades.

Gol D walked to the massive gate that divided the walls of the fortress, his eyes landing on an officer overseeing the soldiers.

"You in charge?" Gol D asked the man.

The man in his brown and green camo uniform looked up from his task. He evaluated the shabbily geared mercenary. While the barbarian before him carried an intimidating epic axe, it was only at the terrestrial grade. The rest of his gear was a mismatch of rare and epic terrestrial gear.

Unimpressed, the officer said, "I am. Are you the best Juniper Station has to offer? Did they really run out of decent mercs?"

Gol D smiled savagely, "I am indeed the best."

The officer snorted disdainfully. "Then go clear out the Spiker nest located here."

The soldier sent an updated map location to Gol D's heads-up display.

The barbarian gave the man no more thought as he turned and continued seeking quests. The process carried on for an hour. Each time, the NPCs displayed their lack of faith in the weak-looking mercenary. But, Gol D was used to such behavior from unfamiliar bots.

Eventually, he sent out a message to his party for them to gather.

Gol D assessed his gathered men.

"The other quests can wait for now. We'll be taking out a Spiker nest first. I'm sharing the quest now."

Through the Cosmos game interface, Gol D was able to share the quest in a moment. Each of his members immediately knew where they needed to go.

As the band of misfits walked out the gate, the officer looked on bemused. If the mercs wanted to rush to their death, it was their prerogative.

Many had tried to clear that specific nest over the past few weeks. But, few had escaped with their lives. The rest were as so much food to be consumed by the Ravenous Spikers. The breeding beasts always needed more food and the mercenaries were better meals than the people of Meesach.

Gol D barely gave the NPC a second thought as he led his band off to face the Spikers' nest.

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First, they scouted out the respawn location which took a party wipe. But soon, they knew where they would need to start.

The Spikers prowled around in packs of three to four and, though Gol D's team was some of the best Ruun players, the clashes were bloody and tenuous.

The guardian taunted a leading Spiker before shield-bashing another as it came in for blood. The third and fourth swung out around the guardian to hound the healer as his aggro, aggression, meter rose.

To protect their healer, Gol D intervened and slammed his battleax down before the oncoming beasts, sending out a cone-shaped shockwave. The other two DPS fell upon the stunned beasts and the party picked up a rhythm. Unfortunately, this rhythm fell apart quickly.

The Spikers unleashed their devastating tail spikes upon the healer as he continuously cast spells. The rare cloth armor he wore provided little resistance to the spikes. And so, the healer was shredded.

Without their healer, the party floundered. Its members cut down two of the spikers before falling and joining their healer at the respawn location.

Gol D bared his teeth in frustration before looking critically at his party.

He turned to his healer, "Save the heals till after the tank takes all the aggro. And put up your shield for fucks sake."

The man nodded after taking a deep breath.

"Drop the [Saint Stones]. We need to use the misdirect stones to reduce their accuracy. And freely use the blood inscriptions. We'll get better ones soon anyways."

The party nodded and Gol D sent out a ready check. All set, they started again.

The pack they'd faced offered little challenge with only two remaining. The next group they targeted provided some difficulty. But, they'd learned their lesson.

The guardian rushed the group of Spikers, falling into the center of the mass. Each enemy took a shield bash or revenge strike before his health dipped too low. His healer jumped in with a heal as the tank started to fail. More heals followed.

Recognizing the threat, the Spikers began to direct tail spikes to the squishy healer, only to have their spikes miss by a wide margin. The misdirect [Saint Stones] had been set by the DPS in the intervening period.

Just as the last of the Spikers fell, a patrolling group of fresh beasts fell upon them.

"Dammit!" Gol D cursed as their healer fell under the new hail of spikes.

The whole party fell shortly afterward.

"Tch," the barbarian clicked his tongue. This was more difficult than he'd expected.

"Let's do it again," he said after a ready check.

The party moved slower. They pulled the packs of terrifying monsters out of oncoming patrols. And, used [Saint Stones] by the ton.

With great effort and continuous sacrifice, they breached the gap to the nest.

Gol D looked to his hesitant guardian and said, "Go."

The tank looked at the hive of seemingly organically woven threads that opened into a tunnel of darkness. With resignation, he turned on his headlamp and walked into the hungry maw.

As soon as he breached the tunnel, he felt a spike lodge into his shoulder.

"Fuck!" the tank cried as he brought his shield up just in time to avoid taking a spike to the face.

"Keep going!" Gol D spat at the slow-moving man.

With frustration, the guardian barreled in, taking damage the whole while. But, his health rose to meet the damage. His healer ever working from the back.

Soon, the party fell upon a group of tightly packed Spikers. Gol D stunned them with another shockwave while the tank took command of their threat generation. The other two damage dealers cut into the enemies with furious strikes and arrows.

"Good work," Gol D said with mild approval before turning to the other tunnels. "Get your mana and stamina up. We've got a lot of work to do."

The party nodded. And, with dedication, they set about hunting through every corner of the nest.

The Ravenous Spikers gave more than they got, forcing the party to start over at the respawn point frequently. But, after a long gaming session, the Spiker's nest was cleared. The party had looted many of the [Spikers' Tails] that the bastard coveted and they'd completed the first of the repeatable [Butchers of Meesach] quest.

They left the nest to be demolished by subsequent workers.

Returning to the officer who'd given the quest, they found the man shocked to see them all returned.

"How-?" he began.

Gol D smiled arrogantly, "Just pay me."

The officer nodded and completed the quest, credits flowing into the barbarian's ethereal wallet.

Gol D looked at his team and sighed.

"My armor's pretty shit right now. As I imagine the rest of yours is."

The members nodded.

"Pfh," Gol D puffed. "Time to go see that bastard. Bet he'll be all too happy with himself."

The party disbanded, each going off to their task. As for Gol D, he took the teleportation array to Juniper Station and headed to the headquarters of his favorite NPC.

"Koll, you bastard," Gol D vented. "You sent us on a suicide mission."

The NPC, Koll Luna, didn't look up from his work as he tinkered with a mechanized arm that glowed with a magical aura.

"You're free to do what you like, Gol D. You're an immortal. I don't know how much more freedom you want."

Gol D rolled his eyes, "Don't give me that bullshit. Those Spikers are too tough for us. Don't you think you should lower the price on some of this new gear you're selling? Even up the playing field."

Koll looked up with aggravation. "You don't like the price, go somewhere else."

"Tch," the barbarian clicked his tongue. "Fine, just show me what you got."

The shop menu opened and Gol D's gaze was filled with greed. Unfortunately, he didn't have the credits to back up that greed.

His eyes gravitated toward the rare interstellar-grade equipment. They would boost his combat power significantly. But, they were out of his price range. Instead, he settled for a common interstellar piece to replace one of his rare terrestrial-grade items.

The auto repair function in the store brought him up to working condition. And he renewed his quests.

The barbarian looked to Koll with distaste before turning to leave. The NPC only gave him a momentary glance before turning back to his labor.

Gol D soon found his way back to Meesach for another run at the [Butchers of Meesach] quest.