Chương 167: Chapter 165 – Fire from the Sky

Overhead, a winged silhouette circled, trailing two clouds of black, oily smoke.

"What is that?" asked Cole.

"It looks like a C-130!"

"Naw, boss, it's only C2. That's what King Apollo called it!" The goblin looked between the sky and the null devil nymph slashing at the helicopters. He mouthed something to himself, knitting his brow together as if concentrating on something.

"Ah!" he said, turning back to Cole.

"We should keep running. Unless you got 'splosion resistance." Heartbreaker looked at Cole.

"You got 'splosion resistance? Cause I sure as fuck don't got 'splosion resistance." Cole grabbed Knuckleburns by the scruff and swung the goblin over his shoulder, trying to ignore the little blue legs kicking in the air. They started running.

"What about a shield? Anything?"

"A shield I can do," said Heartbreaker. He brought his hands together and Cole felt the pop of a charge being used. A shell of energy flickered around them, then another as Heartbreaker began to layer their defenses. Behind, an unholy shriek tore from the nymph and Cole looked back to see the disgusting creature looking their way, again, keyed in on Heartbreaker's ethereal magic.

"Heartbreaker, I don't have enough charges for another jump!" said Cole.

"We won't need it, boss!" shouted Knuckleburns. He slapped Cole's back. The choppers pul't back. Here it comes, you're gonna miss it! You're gonna miss it, boss!"

"I'm more concerned with it missing us!" shouted Cole. Whatever it was. There was something building in the air, a sense of great potential energy buzzing against his senses, but different from a charge being popped. All the hair on his neck and arms stood on end. He glanced over his shoulder. The nymph had begun tearing its way towards them again. But as it came, a bar of white light split the sky from the jet overhead. A flash turned the badlands sun-bright, despite the eclipse.

Then the ground erupted, blasting a fountain of dirt, smoke, and debris from the impact site. The shockwave of the impact hit Cole a second later, the single loudest noise he had heard in his entire life. The shield flared, outer layers cracking from both the blast and the impact of thrown rocks and gravel. The ground rumbled and bucked under Cole's feet, and he lost his footing, sending Knuckleburns flying yet again. Cole rolled across the badlands, hands protecting his face and neck, until he came to a stop.

Something big impacted the ground near him, along with the patter of falling rubble. He rolled over, groaning and pushing himself up. Somehow, Knuckleburns was already up, and helped pull Cole the rest of the way to his feet. In the direction they'd come from, a crater of red-hot rocks marked the site of the blast, along with the back third of the null nymph's chitinous tail and one of its dismembered claws, which was now driven completely through a boulder.

"Jesus H Christ, Airborne!" said Heartbreaker, working his jaw to clear his ears after the blast. Cole's own ears were ringing a bit, despite both his ear pro and his enhanced Acuity offering added protection. Some sounds were just so loud there was no proper defense except distance. Knuckleburns jumped and cheered.

"Now that was a scrap, eh? It's not every day we get to see that! The lads'll feel that one all the way up in Habberport, I bet."

"I bet," said Cole, staring.

"What the hell was that? Some kind of bomb?"

"Naw," said Knucklebones.

"Apollo called 'em K'netic mast divers. From the steely-sparky huck 'em on the big jets."

"Kinetic what?" asked Heartbreaker. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I have no Earthly idea. Sci-fi bullshit. Maybe a railgun," said Cole. Never in a million years would he have thought he'd ever need Howie to explain goblin technology. Knuckleburns turned around and paused.

"Oh!" Look!" he said, running past the two of them. Cole turned around. About fifty meters distant from where they'd been knocked down by the blast, the severed head of the null nymph sat, covered in gray-white chalk dust with its black tongue lolling out of its mouth. Its mandibles still twitched, even though all its eyes had blown out.

"Shit," said Cole.

"Is that what we needed?" Heartbreaker looked at him.

"Maybe we can find another one?" Cole groaned. They'd barely survived the first ones. The ground started to rumble again, and the goblin convoy along with the L-ATV cruised toward their position. Most of the goblin vehicles went ahead, though a few goblins jumped off of them to dogpile Knuckleburns. More dismounted by the head, punching and kicking and gnawing on the tough carapace. Anne and Hard Tone pulled up in the L-ATV, both completely covered in the white chalk dust.

"Did you know they could do that?" asked Cole. Hard Tone worked her jaw and tapped the side of her head.

"Huh? Yeah. Look, from what I heard, the guy that ran this tribe was pretty nuts. Left these guys with the ability to make some interesting toys. Just be glad he didn't develop them nukes or we'd probably have been out here in MOPP4 with Geiger counters." Hard Tone extended her neck, looking past them.

"Oh, good, the head survived. We need some of its cerebral fluid. Hop in." Cole trudged over to the vehicle, feeling exhausted and battered. But he supposed he was just lucky to have no broken bones and intact ear drums, after that. Sourtooth reclined in the back, looking pretty self-satisfied cleaning out one ear with a pinky nail and not even budging an inch to help them up.

Cole moved up adjacent to Hard Tone as she navigated through the sea of blue furry bodies, trying her best not to crush any beneath the tires of the L-ATV.

"You killed one of these things before?" asked Cole.

"Once," said Hard Tone.

"It was about a third that size." She looked over at the severed head.

"It actually went down pretty easy. This one was tough as nails. You did good, Airborne. You sure I can't tempt you over to my team? I could use your mobility and your eyes." Cole shook his head.

"I'm happy to fill in as-needed, but if this is the shit you get into on the regular, I'm not quite there, yet." He looked out at the goblins.

"If you've got any more of these off-the-books worlds, you gotta fill me in."

"Don't go blabbing about this one and maybe I'll think about it," said Hard Tone.

"Rava is off the official books for good reason." As much as Cole wasn't one to sit around and watch others work, he was depleted from burning his charges in such rapid succession and getting his enhancements stripped away when the null nymph took a bite at them. Anne Bonne finally unsheathed her swords and hacked open a gash in the nymph's head, which she used to insert a probe on a modified LF siphon. The reservoir slowly filled with a slate-gray liquid that seemed to strip the color from the air around the tank.

The two hefted the tank back onto the L-ATV, and Cole felt his enhancements diminish again with its proximity.

"Concentrated, anti-LF medium," said Anne, grinning.

"The perfect thing to neutralize enhanced individuals." Sourtooth raised an eyebrow at them.

"What, pray, intend you to do with such a vile thing?" Cole looked at Hard Tone, who gave him a nod.

"Cause trouble. There's a group we come across. Slavers, marauders, murderers. We're going to sneak into their camp, knock one out, and then use whatever info he gives us to rescue our people." The old orc belted a laugh.

"Sounds a proper bracing lark. Grandfather spirits witness your mischief, human. Truly, different is your cloth cut from those men of this world." The goblins eventually managed to load the head and tail of the null nymph onto a pair of vehicles, though one of the little blue creatures got flattened in the process. They didn't seem to have much of a survival instinct—nor any inclination to mourn their fallen. Bizarre creatures.

The convoy got underway, again, heading back west toward the transit site in the badlands. The mote of the budding portal flickered in the air, so Heartbreaker pulled their radio handset from his pack and made contact with the DOR portal control room on the other side. The mote expanded, swirling into the blue and green Earth portal. The goblins chittered and squawked, but luckily none of them seemed inclined to test it out for themselves.

"It's been a fun romp, boss," said Knuckleburns, hugging Cole around the arm. He made a circle with his thumb and fingers above his chest." Ad Luna."

"Indeed," said Sourtooth.

"A sight for song, to see a human fly absent dragon beneath his arse!" The gnarled old orc roared with laughter as he climbed down and stood back. Cole couldn't help grinning.

"This place is definitely unforgettable. Stay safe." Knuckleburns waved enthusiastically, along with the rest of the goblins, while the orc and his brethren just looked on as though disinterested in the whole affair. Hard Tone eased the L-ATV through the portal. They emerged on the other side, tires squeaking on the cement deck of the portal pit. Cole looked back at the recoilless rifle now bolted to the bed of the light vehicle and shook his head. Space goblins. Absolutely ridiculous.