Chapter 6
The goblin sat tied to a chair in one of the conference rooms. Outside, dozens of folks peered through the glass window to get a look at the creature. For most of them, this was their first time seeing one of the storybook creatures come to life. It struggled against its bonds, spat, and cursed at Allistor.
“Blood feud! My clan will kill you all! Roast your hearts and eat them with gemlik sauce!”
“Your clan will do no such thing.” Prime stated calmly as he stood behind the little monster. “Based on the class and condition of the ship you arrived in, your clan is small and of meager means.”
“More than big enough to kill filthy humans!” the creature screamed.
Allistor watched the thing thrash against its bonds, eyes bulging and saliva spraying from its sharp-toothed mouth. “Please, calm down. I want to talk to you. Just talk.”
The creature glared at Allistor, its bloodshot eyes filled with hatred. “You dead. Killed my blood kin! Dead!”
“You attacked my people. We simply defended ourselves.” Allistor tried to be patient.
“No matter! Humans should have run away. Or stayed to be slaves. No one kills Borzgl clan and lives! Borzgl is feared through the whole galaxy!”
“I have never heard of the Borzgl clan.” Prime’s deadpan voice almost made Allistor laugh. He suppressed a grin and tried again.
“You attacked us. Why?”
“Land! Land is all. Everyone knows this, dummy!”
“There is plenty of land still available across the globe. Why attack mine?”
“Gold! Do not pretend you do not know, human. Gold!”
“There is no gold in that Stronghold, beyond what Michael has earned himself.”
“Not in. Under!” The goblin spat at Allistor, a green glob of nasty landing on his shirt. He pulled a tissue from a box on the table and cleaned it off.
“So you think there’s gold in the earth under that Stronghold. That makes more sense. And I suppose you reported this to your clan?”
The goblin just glared at him.
With a sigh, Allistor asked, “Is there any way we can reach some kind of agreement where your clan and mine can have peace?”
The goblin nodded once, grinning. “You give us gold. Then you die. We have peace.”
Prime interjected. “Sire, it is rare for such an… undeveloped goblin clan to possess battle droids and plasma weapons. I suspect this group were equipped and sent here by a third party.”
A knock at the door preceded Bjurstrom sticking his head in. “Heya boss.” He glanced at the goblin, then back to Allistor. “The boys and I were thinking of going fishing later. Maybe go back to Santa Barbara and get one of those really big fishing boats, then go after that sea monster. Thought you might want to tag along?”
Allistor nodded. “I’d love to, but we’ve got lots going on today. And I need you guys too. Need you to lead a few more raid groups to claim more prime spots.” He paused as the squirming goblin caught his attention again. Then an idea came to him.
“Come on in for a sec, Bjurstrom.” Allistor turned to the goblin. “One more time, I wish to make peace. I can give your clan much gold, if you promise to leave my people alone.”
The goblin spat again, but this time Allistor was nimble enough to avoid the flying glob. “You die! No other way! Clan come for you until you die, or clan die!”
“I was afraid of that.” Allistor resigned himself to what had to come next. “You and your clanmates have killed two of my people. Since you refuse to even discuss peace, I sentence you all to death.”
The goblin roared at him, thrashing so hard that it tipped over the chair. Continuing to struggle, it slammed its head against the floor so hard that the blow stunned it.
Looking at Bjurstrom, he said, “I’m going to have Prime send the goblins to Pelican Bay and secure them in a room there. They will be given food and water and held there for a few days. When we’re done with our raids, we’ll go fishing. I figure a squirming, bleeding goblin on the end of a long line will make good sea monster bait. We’ll attach some C4 or a grenade or something. When the monster swallows the bait…”
“BOOM!” Bjurstrom began to laugh. “Nice, boss. Very 1970s.” He held out a fist to bump.
“Arrange to take some of the lower level folks. Should be good xp for killing the remaining goblins and the sea monster. Or whatever else takes the bait.”
“And if we catch and kill the thing before we run out of goblins?”
“Slit their throats, hook them up, and see what other predators you can land. Make the waters around the island as safe as possible. If you don’t get any bites, then bring them back and feed them to the feral hogs on the island.”
“This is why they pay you the big bucks, boss. You don’t waste anything. And you always try to kill two or three birds with one stone.” Bjurstrom grinned at him.
Allistor looked at the goblin. “I tried, goblin. I tried to find a way to let you live. You’ve given me no choice.” He nodded at Prime, who used a blade extension on one of his fingers to cut the knots and free the goblin, then grabbed it by the neck and exited the room.
A quick check of his interface clock showed him it was nearly 5:00am. “Nigel, at 6:00am please ask Chris to join me here. Unless he’s already awake, in which case ask him now.”
“Chris was among those who joined you in the battle, Sire. I shall ask him to join you.”
Bjurstrom left with a nod of his head, and Allistor sat down. Taking out a pencil and paper, he began to make notes for the day’s tasks.
Territory raids – get group together to discuss targets.
Jesse and his people – today?
Speak to Harmon about goblins and loot. Does he know this clan? How much trouble are we in?
Speak to Michael about gold under his property. Potential mine? Are there scanners that can help us identify more places with gold? Other minerals? Does the yacht have them?
Buy more droids for Cheyenne. In case of goblin attack. Loan Michael funds for AA batteries if needed. Also, are there mining droids? Or similar equipment?
Investigate crash site of the other attacking ship.
Figure out repairs for colony ship. Gene?
The list was already probably more than he could get done in the day, but he was getting an early start. The problem was he would need to wake some folks early to take care of most of the checklist. He decided to wait.
Chris knocked, then entered the room. He was carrying two coffee mugs, and handed one to Allistor. “Who needs sleep, right?” He grinned before taking a sip.
“Oh, shit. You’ve been dealing with the loan applications. And then you showed up for this fight? Have you slept at all?” Allistor looked concerned for his friend and Finance Minister.
“A couple hours. No biggie. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. What’s up, boss?”
Allistor tried to decide where to start. “The goblins we just killed are part of a larger clan, who are now our sworn blood enemies, apparently. So we need to beef up defenses here and at surrounding Strongholds, especially Michael’s. If he doesn’t have the funds for more cannons and anti-aircraft batteries, give him a loan. I have a feeling he won’t have any trouble repaying it.” He stopped and leaned closer to whisper, as if there were others in the room.
“The goblins say they attacked him because there’s gold under his property.”
Chris laughed out loud, both at the information and the way Allistor presented it. “I’ll make sure he’s prepared. And I assume you want to purchase more battle droids?”
“Yeah, for sure. We’ll need about a thousand here, I think. And we’re adding more properties. So purchase another five thousand. Coordinate with Prime to get one upgrade for every droid that doesn’t have one already. And buy enough charging units, et cetera. Keep a thousand of them here in Cheyenne, send two thousand to New York, and let Prime distribute them as he sees fit as we add more properties. Also, consult with him on other weapons
systems that might help us. Tanks, maybe? Or fighter ships?”
Chris nodded, taking notes of his own as Allistor consulted his list. “You know already we took the depository in New York. So we have a few extra bucks to spend.” He looked at his friend, who just shook his head.
“It feels a little… I don’t know, dirty? Obscene? To be this wealthy. I mean, we basically have a whole nation’s gold reserve at our disposal. And not like, a small island nation. A superpower. Even with the ridiculous spending we’ve been doing, we have over two hundred billion klax worth of gold.”
“Oh, I have plans for it, my friend. We’re going to buy ships, eventually. Enough ships to go off-world and give these aliens a little taste of their own medicine.” He paused to look at the chair where the goblin had been tied up. “Starting with whatever world these goblins came from.”
Chris nodded, having heard this before.
“But not yet. I want our people to be at least as strong as the aliens we’ve encountered so far. So at least level twenty-five, if not higher. I want all our droids upgraded to the point where other droids don’t have a chance against them. We lost too many in the droid-on-droid fight this morning.”
“I hear ya. It sounds like there will be lots of buildings to clear in New York. I recommend sending small groups of humans in with the droids, to soak up the experience quickly. Then when they hit twenty, switch them out with another group, and keep rotating. Also, make a plan to bring them all here quickly if the goblins attack again. I got two levels from the fight this morning.” He beamed, thumping his chest.
“Imagine if we take five thousand people on ships to wipe out the goblin clan; and assume there are a thousand or more of them. We could level up everyone in a day.” Allistor daydreamed as he spoke. He was sure it wasn’t going to be that simple.
Chris shook his head. “Might be better to let them attack us. Did you look at your experience notifications?”
Allistor shook his head. “Had other things going on.”
“We didn’t just get xp from the kills. We each got a big chunk for successfully defending the Stronghold. Like, half a level’s worth for me.”
Allistor thought about it for a second. “I wonder if there’s a similar bonus for a successful capture? I’ll ask Prime or Harmon.”
They discussed the loan applications for a while, Chris giving him the breakdown of how many applied and how much they needed. In total he needed about half the billion-klax fund he’d instructed Chris to set aside. If that set his people up with their own safeholds, whether that be Strongholds or Outposts, it was worth it. Chris had set the interest rate on the loans at one percent, which seemed more than reasonable.
Several of the people had opted to sell their ten acres to Allistor. He instructed Chris to pay a million per acre, unless the land was completely worthless. And to give the people the option to purchase it back within two years with no mark-up. Most of them had chosen open land or forest near one of the Strongholds that could be used for grazing, farming, or lumber.
Allistor asked Nigel to call Michael in, and they informed him of the potential for gold under his property. They also discussed improving his defenses. By the time they were finished, it was 6:30am.
Since most of the Citadel was still awake, they went ahead and held the funeral for the two men they’d lost. As usual, Allistor said a few words, then friends got up to speak. There were lots of angry comments about the goblins, so Allistor stood back up and assured them that they would all get their chance at payback. Then he turned and used Flame Shot to light the pyre.
By the time it burned down and everyone dispersed, it was 8:00am. He asked Nigel to put him on loudspeaker everywhere.
“Good morning, everyone. My apologies if I woke you. We’ve had a busy morning already, and there’s lots to get done today. First, Michael’s Stronghold here in Cheyenne was attacked by a colony ship full of goblins at about 3:00am. We fought them off, but it cost the lives of two of our own. We are now officially blood enemies of a goblin clan. More on that later. The good news is we took their colony ship, and once it’s repaired, we will have two working spaceships.”
He paused for a second to glance at his list. “Speaking of repairs, Gene, I would like you to lead a team of engineers and mechanics, and maybe a few who’d like to learn the trades, and go through the colony ship. Those of you who are interested, come to Cheyenne around noon today. Gene, please wait for me in New York, and we’ll bring the ship back so we can all check out that crash site. Oh! We were attacked by a ship as we flew to New York yesterday. Sam shot it down. Three cheers for Sam!” He waited as he heard cheers rise up outside.
“Alright, more news. We’re forming raid parties to fly around and grab some more prime real estate for us. We now have half of Manhattan island, a couple properties in St. Augustine, Florida, and a bunch of library, museum, and monument buildings that we’ve claimed in DC so we can preserve them. We have enough battle droids to field a dozen raid parties, and I want to include ten of our people in each party. So any of you fighters who are interested, please report to headquarters in New York to be assigned. Andrea, Dean, and Bjurstrom, you guys are in charge of that. I’ll join you if I can.”
“Over the next few weeks, we’ll also be clearing a few thousand buildings in New York. The mobs in these buildings are likely to be around level fifteen to twenty-five. So I’d like as many low level volunteers as possible to go in behind the battle droids and clear with them. My goal is to level everyone up to at least twenty-five in the next month. I don’t care if you’re a fighter, a teacher, or a custodian, I want you on at least three of those runs. If we’re going to be attacked, I want everyone strong enough to survive. And this is a way to level you that we can control.”
Going off the list for a moment, he added, “Also, we’re going to need more pilots. Anybody with flight experience who’s interested in flying spaceships, or people who are willing to learn, tell Nigel. He’ll organize a list of your names and qualifications, and we’ll begin choosing a few people to train at a time. Starting later this morning with two people.”
“Again, sorry for the early announcement, but it’s vital we get moving on today’s missions. I hope you have a great day, and may you all be healthy and happy.” He grimaced at the lame closing.
Michael snorted. “I would have gone with live long and prosper, or even Lok’Tar!”
*****
After instructing Prime to spend some time with Chris on the new droids and their upgrades, Allistor returned to Invictus. He called his available advisors together to discuss potential raid locations. After an hour’s discussion, they decided to start with Boston, aiming for waterfront property at the port. They would also visit Detroit, Toronto, and Chicago waterfronts, giving them access to four big freshwater lakes and the resources in them. They were going to take a tiny island called Flynn Island in Higgins Lake as well, while they were in Michigan. For reasons Allistor didn’t share.
Allistor was sending a crew to the Caribbean to see about claiming an entire island there if possible. Initially there was some dispute around the potential for hurricane damage, but Allistor reassured them that he’d make the structures strong enough to survive.
Also on the list was the Hoover Dam near Vegas. Allistor had always admired it, and thought it might be a good idea to have control over the water supply for that area. Also, it might be used to generate old fashioned electricity for humans that weren’t interested in being inside Strongholds. Or maybe for manufacturing facilities. And once the dam was secure, that crew could go take a couple casino hotels in Vegas proper. Allistor wasn’t positive, but he had a feeling that gambling was always going to be a thing, even with aliens.
It was decided that Kira would fly the crews to Boston, Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago on the yacht. She could make the entire circuit in a few hours, waiting at each spot to make sure the group was secure before moving on. Gene would use the big jet to fly a crew of ten humans and ten droids
to Vegas airport where they would arrange ground transport for the twenty-mile trip up to the dam. Once they had secured a Stronghold there, more troops could be teleported in for the conquest of Vegas hotels. For the Caribbean island, A group was going to teleport to the St. Augustine Stronghold and secure a boat large enough to transport a hundred droids and a raid crew. They might have to try several islands, and nobody wanted to tie up the space yacht or the plane to go hopping around.
Each group leader was given authority to establish a Stronghold in Allistor’s name, as well as a teleport pad to place. One of the features Prime had chosen for a small number of his new battle droids was a communications module. The droid communicator units could now remain in contact at a distance of up to two thousand miles from other droids with the same module, or one of the Strongholds. With the way Allistor was spreading out, they’d be able to relay secure messages through the droids, or Nigel, or a combination of both, across the entire continent.
Allistor released the teams to do their thing, and Gene was the first to jump from his seat. He kissed his wife and sprinted out the door toward the teleport, anxious to get his hands on the colony ship. He had an idea about using some of the battle droids’ self-repair capabilities to fix the ship.
Checking his list, he decided to go talk to Harmon about the goblins. Leaving through the back door of the building’s lobby, he crossed the courtyard for the first time. There was a manicured sunken garden to his right as he walked out. Though it hadn’t been tended in a year, it still looked beautiful. He made a note to show it to Nancy or George.
As there was no need for a wall between his property and Harmon’s, he simply crossed the street and stepped into the back door of the merchant’s lobby. He was surprised to find creatures of several unknown races walking around inside. Stopping just a few paces in, he took a minute to look around. There were several orcanin and what looked like imps behind counters across the wide open lobby space. There were no wares on display here, and the attendants seemed to be manning what looked like teller windows. Allistor smiled, reminded of the auction houses in almost every VR game ever made.
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 11