“How much goblinsteel do you need, exactly?” I asked.
“Well…”
A tooltip popped up with a quest notification. My eyes bugged out when I saw that I was going to need at least one hundred ingots of raw goblinsteel ore to get the ships running again. Though on the flip side it also seemed like once I got that ore to the good people taking care of the airships they’d be ready to go almost immediately.
It was another one of those weird tradeoffs between reality and game mechanics, and I figured as long as it was a weird tradeoff that was going to be working in my favor then I wasn’t going to knock it.
I sighed. “It looks like we’re going to have to pull a raid on the Goblinsteel Mines after all.”
Rezzik’s ears perked up at that. “Seriously? We’re going to take the fight to the visitors?”
“We are,” I said with a grin.
“It’s about time we did something like that!” Commodore Korsob said, sounding excited for the first time since I’d seen him. “What can I do to help?”
“What you can do is make sure all these airships are loaded down with all the weaponry you can find and ready for combat. Because I’m going to be sending you a shitload of goblinsteel by the end of tomorrow night, and with a little luck we’ll be able to have these babies up and ready to patrol the skies after that!”
“Yes sir!” Korsob said, hitting me with a hand motion that was probably supposed to be a salute.
Though a quick look at that salute made it pretty clear that whoever had designed the goblin salute had also been a fan of Spaceballs way back in the day. I tried not to laugh considering the way the goblin reminded me of people hailing Skroob.
A moment later Korsob turned and started bellowing orders at other goblins who were sitting around the massive hangar doing a whole lot of nothing. From the way they hopped to it when he started bellowing, though, it looked like they were just as ready for something to do as Korsob was.
I turned, satisfied that I’d gotten things in order here. I didn’t think those airships were going to be ready to help with this raid considering we were going to be using the raid to bring materials back to get the airships running, but it’d still be nice to know that we had them.
Maybe I could rain down fire from above a lot sooner than I thought when I first had a look at those schematics!
“So we’re really attacking the mines?” Rezzik asked as we made our way back into the tunnels.
“Well, we’re going to be hitting the ring mines for materials, at least,” I said, shaking my head. “Kris is gonna get her wish to go on the offensive after all, and with a little luck we’ll be in and out of there before Horizon Dawn has a chance to launch a counterattack.”
“Oh,” Rezzik said, sounding disappointed that there wasn’t going to be bloodshed.
“Don’t you worry, Rezzik,” I said. “The time for your revenge is coming, and it’ll probably be a lot sooner than you could’ve ever imagined.”
As we were about to leave the hangar an idea occurred to me. I turned to look back at the three airships being swarmed with goblins who’d been spurred into action. Goblins who were loading weapons and supplies.
“Rezzik, do you think Korsob would let us borrow one of his toys for our raid?”
“He’ll probably let you do anything you want as long as it means killing Horizon Dawn,” Rezzik said with a shrug.
“Good,” I said. “I think it’s time to prepare a little surprise for Horizon Dawn.”
71
Supply Run
I looked out across the clearing to a sight that was familiar to me by now. Sure I’d only ever seen it once before in person, but it was familiar enough since I’d been going over screenshots and videos of the area in addition to ordering goblins around to prepare for tonight.
Most of those videos had been helpfully posted by players who were irate that the whole area was on lockdown and they couldn’t get into the raid dungeon or the mines around the raid dungeon.
Most of those videos also ended with those players being tracked down and killed by a Horizon Dawn patrol after the guards alerted the world to their presence, but with a little luck we wouldn’t have anything like that happening tonight.
A lone Horizon Dawn guard stood in front of the ring mine entrance wearing a tabard with the big H. The guy looked bored. I could imagine the dude was seriously considering some of the choices he’d made in life that put him on boring guard duty when he was supposed to be playing a game and enjoying himself.
I looked up at the night sky above. It was late. Like seriously late. We’re talking it was late in the real world and in the game world.
I knew most gamers tended to play their games late into the night local time, but this was so late in the night, or so early in the morning depending on how you looked at it, that even people out on the west coast had probably decided to call it a night for now.
Not that a normal sleep schedule made much sense these days since most people didn't have jobs to go to in the first place, but whatever. Most people still maintained their diurnal sleep cycle despite the lack of natural sunlight in most arcology levels, and so most everybody in Horizon Dawn who could respond to what we were about to do would be good and asleep right about now.
At least I hoped so. Plus it was a school night which I figured would work in our favor Otherwise things were going to start going really bad really fast with this plan.
"Ready," the goblin mage standing next to me said.
He held his hand up causing flames to dance over his fingers. It was nice to see something like that happening with someone other than that Kravos asshole. I was sick and tired of only seeing magic from that Horizon Dawn asshole trying to use his magical abilities to threaten us.
It’d been a pleasant surprise to discover there was a mage’s school in the Underground, though when I really thought about it I wasn’t sure why I should be pleasantly surprised to find a mage school in a goblin city of that size.
It meant that I had a lot of glass cannons that were able to join this raiding party and do some damage without the need for gear, and they were going to be a crucial addition to this fight.
I waited just a moment. I wanted nothing more than to turn that guard into a barbecue, but I had to make sure everything was done just so. Any mistake could have Horizon Dawn coming down on us like a ton of bricks, and I wasn’t sure if my raiding crew could stand up to that on their first time out.
It wasn’t a question of numbers or resolve so much as it was a question of equipment. I turned to look at the goblins gathered behind me, nervously fingering the weapons we’d crafted for this raid.
Yeah, they’d spent so much time being subjugated by Horizon Dawn that they were clearly ready to take the fight to them. It was just that we didn’t have the equipment to pull that off. Yet.
That was going to change when we got done with our raid on the ring mines.
"Are you getting anything from the front entrance?" I asked.
"It's dead here," Kris said. "And would you believe I've gotten a few skill level ups in sneaking and moving silently? Who woulda thunk it. Me, a stealth character. This is pretty fun!"
"Well don't get used to it," I said. "We're going to need you to tank stuff soon, I'm sure."
"Yeah right," Kris said. "If you keep coming up with crazy schemes like this then you're not going to need a tank at all, but whatever. I can’t wait to try out the surprise you made for Horizon Dawn.”
“Ixnay on the urprisesay,” I hissed.
“What?” Kris said.
“He means shut up about the surprise,” Keia said into party chat. “We don’t want to give anything up yet.”
“But it’s not like they can listen in on…”
“Loose lips sink ships,” I said, knowing that Kris saying something in party chat was a hop, skip, and a jump away from Kris saying something in open chat where a stealther she didn’t even know was spying on her might hear it and ruin the sur
prise. “Now shut up before I have the goblins around you shut you up.”
“Aye aye sir,” Kris said, the sarcasm dripping from her voice.
I didn’t care as long as she shut the fuck up.
"Stay safe, and let us know if anything comes up where you are,” I said. “I imagine the hornet’s nest is gonna start stirring after we give it a good kick.”
"Will do," Kris said.
I turned to Keia. She was still in her healer garb. The miniskirt and top that showed a bit of her stomach and more than a bit of her cleavage. It looked for all the world like a cheerleader’s uniform, which seemed a touch ridiculous for a healer, but clearly the art department who'd designed that outfit decided to have a little fun with the female version of that piece.
"What are you looking at?" Keia asked with a twinkle in her eye and a big grin when she saw me looking.
"What?" I asked.
"I told you. I'm not doing the stealth archer thing again. I don't care if it would help."
"And I never said you had to do the stealth archer thing," I said. “This is a good look for you. I like it.”
She stuck her tongue out, then leaned in to kiss me on the cheek.
“I bet you like it! And thank you for not forcing me to do the stealth archer thing,” she said. "Seriously. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
"It's not a problem," I said.
Honestly it was a problem. It would make a hell of a lot more sense to have Keia doing all the scouting rather than Kris considering she already had a lot of skill points in stealth, but it wasn't an issue I was going to push. The thanks she just gave me was enough to convince me I’d made the right choice.
"Okay," I said. "I think we're ready. Do it."
The goblin mage grinned. It was an unpleasant grin that was made all the more unpleasant by the fact that his face was lit by a fireball dancing in his hand.
It was a wonder that the idiot guarding the mine entrance hadn't realized there was a massive raiding party gathering in the woods with the way that fireball was advertising our presence. It was literally a fiery beacon that anyone paying attention should’ve noticed.
Whatever. If that jerk wasn't going to pay attention to us lighting up the forest as we got ready to kick his ass then that was his problem. I got the feeling Horizon Dawn wasn’t exactly sending their best and brightest to do guard duty in the middle of the night. The dude looked like he was distracted watching something in his HUD.
His funeral. Literally.
The fireball streaked through the air. The guard turned, finally hearing the sound of the fireball moving through the air even if he'd missed the sight of the fireball dancing on the goblin’s hand. His eyes went wide, I could see that clearly in the firelight, and then the fireball struck.
The guard was immolated. He stumbled around, flames surrounding him, and it looked exactly like something out of the movies.
"Nice shooting," I said.
"I try," the goblin mage said.
The Horizon Dawn guy finally came to his senses and dropped to the ground. I winced. That couldn’t feel good rolling around in the dirt with burns all over his body. Then again I figured the pain had probably already been turned down. Either way stop, drop, and roll wasn't going to do the bastard a bit of good. He’d stopped rolling and now he was dragging himself along, looking for help that wasn’t going to come.
At least it wasn’t going to come in time to save his ass, for all that I’m sure he was lighting up Horizon Dawn guild chat right now with a warning that their precious territory was under attack.
The only problem with that was it’d ceased to be their territory. This was my territory now, but they didn’t know that yet.
"Are you sure I can't heal him?" Keia asked. "It would help me gain some more skill, and I need everything I can get! A head to toe burn victim would probably give me a lot of skill ups!”
I looked at the guy and grinned. Maybe the dude would be useful to us after all, even when he was knocking on death’s door. If anything he was more useful to Keia when he was knocking on death’s door.
"Fine," I said. "Go ahead and do your thing."
Ultimately the decision wasn't all that difficult. After all, the guy would be able to send a message to his buddies in Horizon Dawn whether or not he was alive and charred here or alive at the resurrection point. The few seconds of delay while he had to stare at his death animation and think about all the poor decisions he’d made that led to his in-game death wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Private messaging after “death” was one aspect of warfare in this game that was nothing like warfare in the real world.
That was a big part of the reason why we were running this raid in the very late hours of the very early morning while hopefully everyone who could respond to the warning was good and asleep. Most of the people on our level of the arcology playing this game were students, which meant most of them had to get at least a little bit of sleep before school started.
At least I desperately hoped they were asleep. The time it would take for them to wake everyone up and organize a response to this raid was a big part of the plan. I’d even considered running it while everyone was at school, but given the number of people who’d been skipping because of the game launch that wasn’t likely to tip the scales all that much.
"Thanks!” Keia said, looking entirely too cheerful for someone who was about to torture a dude in the name of getting a few skill points. Still, the jerk had made the choice to work for Horizon Dawn.
“Keep relieving him of his hit points for as long as Keia needs it," I said to the goblin mage, surprised at how ruthless I sounded but not caring. After all, these assholes would do everything in their power to torture and kill me in as many ways as possible given the opportunity, so I decided I wasn't going to feel bad about doing the same to them.
I still had the memory of that back alley where they’d tried their best to fuck with me to keep my desire for vengeance burning nice and hot.
"Let's go," I said, motioning for the rest of the goblins behind me to follow. They all held up their goblinsteel swords that crackled with the various spell infusions I’d taught my production line back in the Underground and shook them in a silent yell that acknowledged my order.
I couldn't help but smile just a little. It was heartwarming in a fucked up sort of way to see my tiny little army of bloodthirsty goblins ready to join the fight. Not that I could be sure they’d actually be any good against an actual army of players if it came down to fighting.
I’d just have to hope that it didn’t come to that. Or that if it did come to that then a good old fashioned zerg rush featuring pointy-eared murder machines would be enough to overwhelm Horizon Dawn.
The goblins streamed out of the trees and flooded into the mine. It’d been cleared out, but it's not like it would be a problem even if it had been inhabited.
After all, the mine had been populated exclusively by goblins, and if anything they’d greet their brethren as liberators rather than turning on them. Though if I had anything to do with it there’d be no more goblins coming up to these mines to be slaughtered. Already my takeover of the Goblin Underground faction seemed to have done something, and they were whispering about how I’d saved them from the compulsion to go up to the surface to die.
Which was just fine with me. I didn’t want the goblins dying unnecessarily, and breaking that in-game compulsion had added to my mystique with the little dudes and dudettes, for all that it was probably a simple matter of that bit of programming being overridden the moment they fell under player control.
They worked fast. The goblins seemed to know exactly where the nodes of goblinsteel ore were. Maybe it was that they had more skill in mining than I did. Maybe it was that this was their home territory and they were well aware of how it worked. Whatever the reason, I’d take it if it meant they were moving fast.
Speed was going to be our friend tonight. I was well aware that it w
as only a matter of time before Horizon Dawn started showing up ready to ruin our fun.
I didn't even bother yelling at them or telling them to hurry. They knew what the stakes were. They knew they had to move fast if they were going to get this done. At least if they were going to get this done and get out of here alive.
"What do things look like at the entrance?" I asked.
"Nothing yet," Kris said. "What are they doing to the guard? Maybe he hasn't thought to send them a private message if he’s distracted or something?”
I grimaced. They were doing something pretty nasty to the guard. Maybe nasty enough that he hadn't thought to send a private message because he was so busy getting tortured by repeatedly getting immolated by my friend the mage and then healed up by my best girl so she could get some skill increases in healing.
Oops.
Ruthless, but apparently effective.
"Do you really think this is going to work?" Keia asked over group chat.
"No way to tell," I said. "But we have to try. Someone has to hit those bastards where it hurts.”
"You’ve got that right," she said, a bloodthirsty note coming to her voice.
“Not to mention we need more materials if we’re going to start bringing some of the mechanized stuff the goblins have buried in their city out to play,” I said. “That stuff is going to really turn the tide of this battle.”
After the airships I’d made sure to look through all the plans the goblins had on file and specifically ask whether or not they had any of them in their city. It turns out there was a treasure trove of potential mechanized warfare waiting in the Underground, and all of them had the same problem: I needed to gather goblinsteel to get them running again.
It was the world’s lamest and most tantalizing fetch quest ever, and I figured we were going to make a dent in those requirements here tonight.
"We’ve gone through most of the mine," Rezzik said, stepping up to me and sketching a salute that had me laughing again because it reminded me of Spaceballs. "It won't be long before we have this one mined out, but I think it’s been long enough since most of these mines have been worked that we’re going to get quite a bit of goblinsteel.”
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