THE FOLLOWING THINGS ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS; I DO NOT OWN THEM AND MAKE NO MONEY OFF OF THIS STORY
Mahō Shōjo Lyrical Nanoha (Teana, various other characters) – 7Arcs
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (Shion and friends/family) – 07th Expansion and Studio Deen
Shuffle! (Kaede Fuyō and associated characters) – Navel and Asread
Erika's New Perfume (Marie, Sarah, Erika, Timmy, Veronica) – DeviantArtist 'Lance the Young'
Mai-chan's Daily Life (Mai, Kizuna) – Waita Uziga
Star Wars (Ahsoka, Cody, Rex, Force Unleashed cast) – George Lucas, Lucasfilm
Halo (Forerunners, UNSC, Sangheili Alliance) – Bungie, 343 Industries
StarCraft (multiple characters, events, and devices) – Blizzard Entertainment
Naruto (characters, techniques, abilities) – Masashi Kishimoto
Mahō Sensei Negima (characters, spells, abilities) – Ken Akamatsu
Kingdom Hearts (characters, weapons, enemies, concepts) – Square-Enix
Neon Genesis Evangelion (characters, concepts, tech) – Studio Gainax
Elfen Lied (Kaede K., others) – Lynn Okamoto, Arms
Red vs. Blue (The Blood-Gulch Crew, the ex-Freelancers) – Rooster Teeth
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic – Hasbro, Lauren Faust
Transformers Film Series – Hasbro, Michael Bay
Transformers: Beast Wars – Hasbro, Mainframe Entertainment
Yu-Gi-Oh! – Kazuki Takahashi, Viz Media
Sonic the Hedgehog – SEGA
Gears of War – Epic Games
Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles – Columbia Tristar (I think)
Mass Effect – Bioware
Metroid – Nintendo
Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Gen Urobuchi, SHAFT
The Legend of Zelda – Nintendo
Tōhō – ZUN
RWBY – Rooster Teeth
Pretty Cure / PreCure – Toei Animation
Kill La Kill – Trigger
Cross Ange – Sunrise
Cardcaptor Sakura – Clamp
Sailor Moon – Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha
Sailor Nothing – used with express permission of Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne; please visit his website for SN and his other original works
Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya – TYPE-MOON
Pokémon – Nintendo, GameFreak
Goblin Slayer – Kumo Kagyu, White Fox
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGE (CHARACTER PAGE IS NOW GONE)
-BOOK 38 START-
Realm GS-15
The UNSC Infinity and the Starshot held position high over this new planet.
"This whole world kinda reminds ya of a great big real-life RPG" Roland remarked. "Everybody even calls each other by their, well, 'character class' or occupation. And there are plenty of monsters & demons threatening the peace."
"Including the kind that attacked our scouting team in the woods" Capt. Lasky replied. He called up a holoscreen, showing a view from the morgue's lab, where a child-sized green creature was laid out on an examination table, a sizable hole in its chest where a .45-caliber round had torn through its heart.
"Mean little critter and its buddies weren't prepared for a UNSC marine fireteam…" the A.I. said.
"Not many people are" Lasky said with a little grin. "So, what do we know about this thing from the physical analysis and genetic sequencing, as well as the microsatellite network we've got started observing things down there?"
"Welp," Roland rubbed his holographic hands together, "to be blunt, these little guys are straight nasty, yo. Their blood and flesh are toxic to humans and probably anyone else, too. Sociopathy is hard-coded into their DNA – the whole species literally can't feel empathy or compassion, see all other lifeforms as useful tools, toys, or threats to be extinguished, and they're all sadists. Apparently, they're raiders, attacking settlements and caravans, killing anyone they can catch and stealing whatever isn't nailed down. They start out small & stupid, but as they gain experience and are met with difficult environments they can mature/mutate into more capable specialized forms. They're all male, and they reproduce by raping captive women; the resulting parasite gestates extremely quickly, and as soon as it's birthed the little bastards do it all over again. Apparently, most women captured by these things only last a couple weeks at most before their bodies just… give out."
"Jesus Christ…" Capt. Lasky muttered, muted horror in his expression.
"But, there is a potential silver lining" Roland continued. "According to genetic analysis, unlike practically all the other threats on this planet… these 'goblins' aren't native pests. They're not from this world, they're invaders, using portals of some sort to cross over and pillage this world. And that means…"
"…that the Dimensional Defense Force is cleared to help the locals fight off the invasion" Lasky said. "We inform the locals that the goblins are an alien invasion, find out how they're getting here and shut it down, help the locals evict or kill the little bastards…"
For the next couple hours, Lasky, Palmer, Arum, & Holland made plans with some of the DDF higher-ups, while as a trial run, they sent a team down to clear out a small goblin nest close to a settlement; as soon as they'd learned about what goblins did, Gamma Team readily volunteered, armored up and out for blood.
"Oh, hell" Miller suddenly groaned from his place looking over some of the aerial data. "We've got a group of rookie kids heading right for a goblin cave."
"If they try to deal with those things on their home turf without forewarning and high-end gear," Palmer said, "those kids are gonna get slaughtered. Do we have any teams on standby, ready to head down there immediately?"
Lasky quickly pulled up a list of ready teams. "If we're talking about a nest of these things, plus rookie 'adventurers' in peril, marines might not be enough. …I'm sending some Spartans."
-Break-
Dropped off by a rapid-response Pelican, the five Spartan-IVs of Fireteam Kestrel hurried toward the cave they'd been directed to. As they reached the entrance, they came across somebody already preparing to head in. The person was tall (though not quite Spartan level), clad in silver light armor, a small shield strapped to his left forearm and a short sword in his right hand, a tattered red cloth sticking up from his full-face helmet. The man looked up as the Mjolnir-armored Spartans approached.
"This cave is a goblin nest" he told them in a soft, deep voice. "Extremely dangerous if you're not ready."
"Oh, we're ready" Kojo 'Romeo' Agu replied.
"Long story short," Taylor 'Dutch' Miles said, "we're part of a great big multi-universal space-traveling alliance of sovereign powers. We stumbled across this world, and although normally we're supposed to limit interference on lower-tech worlds, we found out the goblins aren't native to this planet; the little bastards are aliens, trying to invade. And that gives us free rein to help you locals clear 'em out."
The armored man's eyes widened behind his helmet. "The goblins are invading aliens?"
"Yeah. We're not sure where they're coming from yet, but our scientists looked at their genetic code, and they're definitely not local pests. They're usin' magic-based portals to come here from… wherever their homeworld is, in order to pillage this world."
"We can give details later" Edward Buck spoke up. "There's a squad of kids in way over their heads in this cave; we've gotta get in there if any of 'em are gonna be leaving alive. Mickey, get our friend fitted with a VISR."
Mickey approached the local warrior, holding a visor with clips that could be attached to his helmet. "To sum up, fit this thing over your helmet's eyeholes and it'll let you see in near-zero light – friendlies highlighted in green, hostiles in red, everything else yellow. Doesn't work as well in brighter environments, though…"
The armored man attached the device over his helmet's upper face, toggling it on and confirming it worked exactly as Mickey said it did. "Interesting technology…" he said. "And a lot less likely to be seen or smelt by goblins than a torch is."
"Let's get in there and get those poor, stupid kids out" Dutch said. "You got a name, fella?"
"Everyone just calls me 'Goblin Slayer'," the local man replied as the team moved into the cave, "so that's what I go by."
The squad leader nodded. "I'm Eddie Buck; this is Kojo Agu, or 'Romeo'; Taylor Miles, or 'Dutch'; Michael Crespo, or 'Mickey'; and James Dante, or 'Rook'. We're a kind of enhanced super-soldier called Spartans – Spartan-4s, technically. Tellin' about the 1s, 2s, and 3s would take a while, so we'll put that off for later. Alright, boys, let's up the pace; every second could mean life or death for those rookies!"
"Normally I'd advise against being hasty and forgoing stealth in a goblin nest," Goblin Slayer said as he & the Spartans stepped it up, "but my gut's telling me that you guys can handle it. Fair warning: you'll probably see some… unpleasant things."
"Yeah, we figured out how the little bastards reproduce…" Mickey growled.
Suddenly, Rook withdrew his combat knife and tossed it, the blade sinking right between the eyes of a goblin trying to hide in a nook in the cave wall up ahead. As the men stormed past, he reached and yanked the blade out of the falling corpse without stopping. Less than a minute later, Mickey, the current point-man of the squad, spotted movement up ahead with his visor – two figures, the near-limp taller figure's arm slung over the smaller one's shoulder, the smaller figure doing most of the moving in a panicked retreat.
"Survivors!" Mickey called out, startling the smaller survivor up ahead. It was a young blonde girl, no older than 14 or 15, clad in a white & blue outfit now stained with dirt and someone else's blood, her free hand clutching an ornate staff. She was half-carrying another girl, either older or just more 'developed', with dark-red hair and a bloodstained top under a shredded cloak. Her skin was pale, blood dripped from her nose, and her body was shaking. As the Spartans and Slayer approached, the smaller girl almost sobbed with relief at seeing help arrive.
"We're here to kill goblins and get you kids' group outta here" Buck said. "Is your friend there okay?"
"I-I don't know" the girl replied, her voice shaking. "She got stabbed; I-I healed the wound, but she keeps deteriorating!"
"The goblins coat their blades in poison" Goblin Slayer explained.
"Damn it" Buck growled, then called up his Omnitool, showing Spartan Miller's face. "Miller, we found two survivors; one's been hit with a nasty poison, probably hemotoxin. Marking her with a beacon for emergency extraction!"
"Understood" Miller replied. "We'll 'port her straight to the medbay and have a crash team ready."
As the young girl and the Goblin Slayer watched in confusion, Dutch & Rook gently took the poisoned girl and laid her flat, attaching a Protoss-made emergency teleport module to her torn cloak as she took weak, wheezing breaths. They stood back, and a flash of blue accompanied the girl being warped straight up to the Infinity's ICU.
"Where's the rest of your team?" Mickey asked the girl.
"Our 'Warrior' is dead" the girl replied, trying not to break down. "They… They tore him apart. And 'Fighter', she got caught off-guard by some h-huge goblin; they're n-not supposed to be that big! They…" she shuddered and sobbed.
"They took her…" Goblin Slayer surmised.
The Spartans firmed up, weapons ready. "We're getting her out" Rook decreed.
"We came to… to rescue some village girls taken by the goblins" the girl explained. "I'm just a new Priestess… We never… None of this was supposed to happen…"
"Adventures handed out by the Guild get ranked based on how much money gets paid for them," Goblin Slayer said, irritation with the system in his voice, "not how difficult and dangerous they are. And because goblins typically attack small settlements, villages, or caravans who can't afford to pay much, people who take those missions are woefully unprepared for just how dangerous the little monsters are…"
"I'm thinkin' our higher-ups are gonna wanna force an overhaul onto that system…" Dutch rumbled.
"We've gotta move" Buck said. "Mickey, can you escort the kid out?"
The Priestess shook her head. "I… I couldn't save Warrior and I couldn't help Wizard. …I'm not leaving Fighter, too."
"What are your capabilities?" Goblin Slayer asked.
"Minor Healing and Holy Light" the girl replied. "I've already used Minor Healing on 'Wizard', so I've got two miracles left for today."
'Mages of this world are limited to a certain number of spells a day?' Buck thought. 'That ain't right. Is it something about how this world works, or just something with the magic system they use? We'll have to set this kid up with Yen Sid or the Springfields or someone from the Bureau…'
"Holy Light should be good for temporarily blinding goblins so we can handle them easier" Slayer said. "If you're coming with, stay close and be ready to cast when we say."
"Here kid, put this visor on" Romeo pulled out another VISR visor, this one meant to be put over a bare face.
The seven people advanced into the cave, eyes peeled and weapons ready.
"Interesting weapons you people are holding" Goblin Slayer looked at the weapons in Fireteam Kestrel's hands – Buck's MA5D assault rifle, Dutch & Rook's M7S submachineguns, Romeo's BR85 rifle, and Mickey's M45D shotgun. "I've heard about some of the kingdoms recently debuting man-portable 'mini-cannons'; I'm assuming those are more advanced equivalents?"
"By about 1,000 years, yeah" Romeo replied. "We'll give ya a crash course on what guns are later."
"Something up ahead" Dante suddenly spoke up. "Goblin corpses and a lot of blood."
"Watch the side tunnels" Goblin Slayer said.
"S-Side tunnels?" Priestess looked confused, and then shocked as she saw that there was indeed a secondary tunnel hidden by the shadows. "B-But that's… What…"
"I'm guessing you and your party were distracted by that totem on a stick against the wall?" Slayer asked. "That's a typical goblin tactic – put something flashy and distracting out in the open so rookies don't notice the ambush tunnels in the darkness."
"Body" Buck announced. "Good Lord, the little fuckers tore him apart…"
There in the middle of the cave floor was the mangled corpse of the young male 'Warrior' from Priestess' party, carved apart and gutted like a fish. Priestess turned and vomited, while Goblin Slayer approached the dropped longsword.
"This blade's too long to use effectively in this cave" he said. "I'm guessing… he got one or two of them, and then caught it on the cave ceiling and lost his grip on it."
Buck sighed. "Mark the body for retrieval teams. We'll make sure the poor kid gets a proper burial…"
"Closed casket…" Romeo muttered.
There was suddenly a thud from behind as Goblin Slayer caught an ambushing goblin by the neck, slammed it against the cave wall, and drove his short sword through its neck. "We should be close to the main den" he said. "The goblin tribe's head should be there, along with any surviving captives. Expect a shaman – goblin mage, typically use fire- or lightning-type magic. From what the little Priestess described, they'll have a hobgoblin, too; great big goblins that serve as dumb muscle and guards for goblin nests and some of the more prosperous raiding parties. And fair warning, they're very hard to kill; a hob can soak up a ludicrous amount of damage before going down."
They advanced further into the cave, soon reaching a downward sloping passage that led down into the darkness.
"The den's core chamber must be down there" Goblin Slayer said.
"Motion tracker shows some activity down there" Dutch replied.
"Alright," Buck said, "we'll go in fast and hit hard. Priestess, take the lead and time your light-flare so it goes off as soon as you enter the room, then fall back and let us wipe the goblins out. We move on three. One… two…"
At his signal, they took off running/sliding down the slope – Priestess in the lead, Mickey & Dutch right behind her, Romeo bringing up the rear. Priestess incanted her 'miracle' as she moved, and right when they reached the entrance to the chamber she let it cast. As several of the goblins cried out in shock and pain from the blinding light against their sensitive, darkness-adjusted eyes, the Spartans went on the attack. Gunfire rang out as the veteran soldiers struck swiftly and with surgical precision, every round tearing through a goblin's skull or chest. Dutch charged the hobgoblin who was standing over a captive girl, getting in close and hammering the beast with Spartan-strength punches, powerful enough that even the beefy, resilient super-goblin took heavy damage. He finished by pulling his M6C-SOCOM pistol out, placing it up under the hoboglin's chin, and firing three rounds up through its brain.
Meanwhile, the goblin shaman started incanting a lightning spell, but Buck zeroed in and charged the evil mage, drawing and igniting a Sangheili plasma sword. Letting his armor's shields soak up the Thunder spell the goblin mage threw at him, he stabbed the glowing plasma blade through the shaman's chest, and with a roar he swung upward, vertically bisecting the shaman from mid-chest up. Nearby, Romeo launched a goblin with a kick that caved the little creature's ribcage in, and the body knocked into the shaman's throne, knocking it aside and revealing a crude wooden hatch. Curious, Romeo yanked the hatch open, and the goblin juveniles inside hissed at him.
"Nestlings!" he called out.
Goblin Slayer chopped a goblin's head off. "Kill them!" he shouted.
Nodding, Romeo pulled out and primed a frag grenade. "Fire in the hole!" he shouted as he tossed the grenade in and immediately shoved the wooden hatch back into place. A second later, a muffled thump shook the area, the goblin children's cries went silent, and frag shrapnel punched into the wood from inside.
The last goblins soon fell, cut down by Mickey's shotgun and Buck's assault rifle. While Rook & Slayer watched the exit, everyone else secured the area. Along with nearly two-dozen goblin corpses, there were four young village women chained up against the far wall, their bodies stripped naked and marred with blood and 'filth', virtually unresponsive, though they were just aware enough to have noticed the strangely-armored newcomers that had come and slaughtered their tormentors. And a little off to the side from the center of the chamber, a fifth girl was curled up in a loose fetal position, trembling weakly, eyes unfocused and dim, letting out sounds halfway between pitiful hiccupping gasps for breath and weak sobs, various wounds on her dirtied body, blood and 'something else' between her quivering legs… Priestess let out a soft sob as she knelt down beside her team's 'Fighter', cradling the taller girl in her arms.
"It's alright" she whispered to the girl through her own tears. "It's all over. You're safe now. Y-You're gonna be okay…"
"All right," Buck said, "let's get these girls outta this hellhole."
"I don't think they're in any shape to walk, sir" Rook replied. "And I'm not 100% certain we got all the goblins in these caves, so I'm not keen on just leaving them here until more of our people get here."
"…Then we'll carry 'em out on our backs. I'll call in a Pelican to come pick us up. And since I figured we were hittin' a goblin nest and might find, uh, 'victims', I brought somethin' to protect their modesty…"
Buck reached into a subspace storage pack affixed to his hip, given to him by the Starshot, and pulled out a set of five beige hooded cloaks, which Priestess and Dutch helped dress the rescued girls in to give them some semblance of modesty. With Goblin Slayer & Priestess' help, the five Spartan-IVs soon had all five girls clinging/tied to their backs, with Rook carrying 'Fighter'.
"Alright, let's get outta here" Mickey said.
"We can't be totally sure we got all the gobs in these caves" Buck told the group. "Eyes open, weapons ready, check your corners."
A chorus of "Yes sir"s came from the rest of the group, even Slayer and Priestess (Goblin Slayer could tell by now that Buck was a veteran special-operations leader who knew what the hell he was doing, and thus easily decided to defer to him). The group made their way back up the slope and started backtracking through the cave, alert with weapons ready. Buck brought his Omnitool up, contacting Infinity again.
"Fireteam Kestrel to command. We're on our way out."
"Copy, Kestrel" Miller replied. "We'll send a dropship to meet you guys out front. What's the sit-rep?"
"We've got four surviving captives, probably from a nearby village. Also, we found the rest of the rookie team, besides that poisoned girl we warped up to you guys. One's only got minor injuries, though she's probably gonna need a little therapy. The third is alive and unmaimed, but… well, the gobs had her for a little while before we got to her." He sighed. "The fourth kid didn't make it."
"Understood. Regarding the girl, she's not out of the woods yet, but our docs think she's gonna make it."
Hearing that, Priestess let out a shuddering gasp and started murmuring prayers of thanks.
"Also, we had another local helping us out. Guy who goes by 'Goblin Slayer', seems to have dedicated himself to hunting & killing the little bastards. He knows his stuff."
"Good to hear someone down there's already taking the threat the invaders pose seriously. We'll see you guys when you get back, Kestrel; we'll bring you and the locals to the F.O.B-slash-field hospital we're setting up down there."
"Already?"
"Yep; gotta love UNSC prefab construction techniques… See you at 'Sunlight's Shield' Base. Miller out."
"Pfft. They've even given it a dramatic name already."
"This from the guy who named his pistol…" Romeo murmured.
"I know, right?" Mickey whispered, grinning behind his helmet.
"Hey, you two talkin' smack about my Whispered Truth?" Buck asked.
"No, sir!" the other two soldiers replied.
"…That's a cool name…" the girl being carried by Dutch whispered.
"I guess…" Mickey sighed.
Suddenly, Buck stopped and held a hand up, and everyone else came to an immediate halt, going silent. His gaze was fixed on a small side tunnel up ahead on the right, just barely visible from this angle. After a second, he gestured a Mickey and silently waved him up. The demo-specialist Spartan nodded, drawing his shotgun and beginning to slowly, silently creep close. As he did, he heard the very faint whispered chattering of at least two goblins coming from the tunnel ahead. The girl 'riding' on his back did her best to stay quiet and breathe quietly as she realized that A) goblins were waiting to ambush them, B) her carrier knew they were there, and C) the gobs didn't know he knew they were there.
Mickey crept ever closer, right to the edge of the side-tunnel entrance. Then, he abruptly sprang forward, turning to point his shotgun inside, right at the two goblins waiting.
"Boo, motherfucker!"
His shotgun boomed twice, tearing the goblins' heads apart before they had time to more than cry out in shock.
"Don't see any more, boss" he said to Buck. "It's a really short tunnel."
"…Throw a frag in" Buck replied. "Just in case."
Nodding, Mickey primed a frag grenade and underhand-tossed it in, sliding out of the way with an almost bored-sounding "Fire in the hole". There was a thump, dust falling from the cave ceiling, and then he peeked back in. After a few seconds, he gave everyone else a thumbs-up.
After only another couple minutes' travel, the group saw daylight again. Disengaging their VISRs, they stepped out of the cave, looking around at the forest surrounding the little clearing they were in, the cave to their backs.
"We're out" Buck radioed. "Waiting for pickup."
"This is Pelican Oscar-427" a man's voice replied. "I'm about 15 minutes out, but you fellas better hunker down, 'cause the sats have picked up a big pack of goblin marauders headed your way, and they're gonna reach y'all before I do!"
Hearing that, everyone went on alert. The Spartans set the five cloaked girls down beneath the cave entrance, with Priestess staying back with them; Dutch and Romeo were already grabbing nearby boulders and fallen trees, moving them around to make a partial impromptu barricade, while Goblin Slayer and Rook tried to set a couple pitfalls and snare traps.
The team hunkered down, watching and waiting. Everything was still and quiet for a couple minutes. Then, an arrow shot out from the tree-line, Romeo's energy shields flaring as the projectile shattered against them. Immediately, Dutch and Buck poured full-auto fire at the spot the arrow had come from for a few seconds, a faint cry of pain telling them that one of their shots had grazed the goblin responsible. Goblins started emerging from the woods, firing arrows from crude bows or just slinging rocks at the humans, and Fireteam Kestrel returned fire, downing several of them.
A goblin stepped in a snare trap, being hoisted into the air by the ankle and promptly filled full of lead by Dutch. Another fell in a trap hole, and Goblin Slayer chopped its head off when it tried to climb out. Then, a hobgoblin came charging out, brandishing a battle-axe stolen off a dead adventurer and wearing crude leather armor over its tall, portly frame. The Spartans were about to focus fire on it, when a DDF reinforcement arrived and beat them to the punch. Rock Lee blitzed in, snapping a regular goblin's neck with a karate-chop as he passed without even putting any thought into it, and then pummeled the hobgoblin with bone-crunching blows (while going "watatatatataaa~!", as he does). He then briefly opened the First Gate to have enough strength for his finishing blow, and 'Fighter' actually partially came out of her daze to stare in awe as Lee kicked the hobgoblin in half, his lightning-fast leg tearing the big goblin in two, sending the pieces tumbling away, the blow so fast that Lee didn't even get any blood on himself.
"Damn…" Goblin Slayer murmured, actually sounding impressed.
Two more DDF people arrived to help soon after. Jaune Arc dropped down into the path of a second hobgoblin that was trying to get at the girls from the side, shield-bashing its wooden club out of its hand and landing several Aura-enhanced slashes that brought the beast to its knees, finishing with a downward chop that split its head in half. Pyrrha Nikhos, fresh from training in Sunagakure and now with a new outfit that covered a bit more skin and had some sand-brown mixed in with the red & gold, caught a goblin in some of the "iron sand" emerging from the subspace-enabled pack on her back and – enraged after learning what these horrid creatures did to people – didn't hesitate to hyper-compress the iron sand, crushing the goblin into paste with a burst of blood.
Rock Lee and the Spartans made short work of the remaining goblins, the few survivors fleeing for their pathetic lives. Unnoticed by the soldiers & warriors, however, a lone goblin survivor was creeping out from the cave behind the Priestess and the five rescued girls, a bloodthirsty grin on its face and a dagger in its hand as it crept closer, heading for the distracted Priestess. The goblin leapt, aiming to jab its dagger into her neck… and then Fighter's instincts to defend her comrade moved her, a spinning fist crashing into the goblin from the side and slamming it into the nearby cave wall. As everyone jumped from the sudden sound & motion, the traumatized girl grabbed a nearby dropped goblin club and started smashing the downed goblin's head over and over, letting out a hoarse shout with each strike.
Even after the goblin was assuredly dead, Fighter kept whacking it, emotion increasingly filling her voice as her hits steadily weakened. Finally, she dropped the blood-soaked club, fell to her knees, and started sobbing and wailing as all the built-up fear, pain, despair, and grief from everything she'd been subjected to started pouring out all at once. Priestess knelt and hugged her close, the broken girl sobbing into her shoulder. The other four victim girls weakly scooted closer and joined in, holding on weakly to Priestess, Fighter, and each other.
There was a whirring roar as Pelican dropship Oscar-427 flew in, engine pods shifting around to carefully lower it into the clearing. A couple of medics hopped out, along with the craft's copilot / weapons officer.
"Sorry we took so long" the woman said. "The field-hospital part of the F.O.B. is already up & running, ready for these girls. Let's get 'em patched up and checked out, make sure there aren't any… parasites" she said that last part with an angry grimace, remembering the briefing on goblins.
"How's our other ground team doin'?" Buck asked. "And who is our other ground team?"
"There was a small goblin next about 13 klicks from here." The copilot grinned. "We set Gamma Team on them."
"Those girls?" Romeo replied. "Wow. I almost feel bad for the little bastards."
He called up an Omnitool, tapping into live recording of whatever was going on with Gamma Team. The radio transmitted sounds of gunfire, mana blasts, energy blades slicing through flesh, and goblins crying out in pain and terror ("I REGRET EVERYTHI-" *crunch-squelch*)
"Something concerns me" Goblin Slayer said as the medics guided the Priestess and the five girls into the dropship. "The goblin marauders' behavior was unusual, and they were too well-equipped to be a wandering band. If I had to guess, I'd say they had to be den-dwelling goblins driven out of their den by something… or someone…"
"Well, we can debrief you and get your thoughts back at base" Buck replied. "C'mon, there should be room for all of us."
"Never thought I'd ride in a self-propelled flying transport vehicle…" the Slayer said to himself as he stepped aboard. "Beats a horse-drawn cart, I guess."
"Something else concerning has come up" one of the medics said once everyone was aboard, the Pelican ascending and flying toward Sunlight's Shield. "Our scans of space-time around this planet indicates there was a relatively recent slipspace exit-rupture before our ships got here. I think somebody might be hiding around here…"
-X-
Elsewhere, several decapitated goblin heads were mounted on pikes outside the entrance to some ruins, a former goblin stronghold now under new ownership…
-CHAPTER END-
Next Time: Slayer and Priestess learn what they've gotten involved in, recovery begins, and the DDF meets another new enemy…
