————————————————————————
B2 - Lesson 17: "Be your own Hero."
————————————————————————
———————————————————————————​

Alpha sighed in disappointment. He’d been hoping to capture the so-called ‘mage’ and… interrogate them. Jīshí had mentioned them before, but this had been the first time Alpha had seen one at work. The strange circles that had appeared in thin air reminded him of arrays, and he was eager to have a new reference point to study. More so since his own array-work had stalled.

Sure, he knew how to capture, store, and direct the environmental energy, but putting it to work was a whole other matter. Most of his experiments so far have been… explosive. Fun, sure, but not productive.

Unfortunately, it seemed the goblins were a bit trigger-happy. Axe happy? Either way, it meant Alpha would have to hope another ‘volunteer’ was waiting for them in the village. Not that he blamed the goblins for their reactions. One thing was abundantly clear between what Antchaser had told him and what his [Wasp] scouts had gathered.

These ‘adventurers’ were violent, cocky, and almost sadistic in their treatment of the goblins. Even each other in some instances. They reminded Alpha of the pirates that wandered the less patrolled parts of Federation space. If what Antchaser had told him was correct as well, then their modus operandi wasn’t too different from each other, either.

That was fine by Alpha!

Federation military law gave Alpha full clearance to deal with pirates as he saw fit! That meant no need for pesky things like ‘fair chance’ warnings, ‘right to trial,’ or ‘universal sapient rights’ getting in the way.

Nope, the Federation held the firm stance that the moment a pirate or bandit decided to point their ship weapons at a civilian vessel, they lost all rights to any kind of fair treatment. Sure, they could always surrender or turn themselves in. Federation courts could be lenient if someone could prove extenuating circumstances. Sometimes, it was ‘die at the hands of the pirates who boarded your ship’… or join them.

Though that meant surviving the initial encounter in the first place.

Besides, from what Alpha had observed, he doubted any of those particular laws applied here.

As for Antchaser, the goblin’s training had gone surprisingly well. Training within a translight bubble was a tricky thing. Pushing the time dilation up to the level where it would be effective required huge amounts of power. Power Alpha was still working on. Currently, everything in the base was hooked directly into Alpha’s power core.

While this latest model, Gen-IV power core, was technically strong enough to power a small city or run the TAWP and all its weapon systems nearly indefinitely, he’d run into an issue.

Storage.

The above scenarios assumed highs and lows in power usage, with advanced batteries used to store excess energy while keeping output at a constant and comfortable level. The power core wasn’t meant to be drawn on constantly over longer periods of high activity. It was designed to charge batteries, filling or draining as power demands rose or decreased.

It was like plugging your devices directly into a generator. Sure, you could do it, but it would be inefficient. Connecting your generator to a larger battery bank and then your devices to the bank would be far better.

Alpha didn’t have any batteries. At least not at any of the appropriate level. Not yet. Batteries of the kind he would need to make any difference were still a ways away.

So, with most of his energy output already taken up by the antborg incubator’s translight bubbles, Alpha had little to spare.

With some clever use of VR and a jury-rigged ‘infinity room,’ however, they had condensed a relative-time month of basic Federation Reserves training into half a day of real-time. It was only a fraction of the time a real Federation soldier would spend, with expeditionary soldiers, in particular, spending years of relative time in training. Yet it was enough for the basics. Part of that was thanks to Antchaser’s own drive. The young (Alpha assumed) man had pushed himself to extreme levels during their training. It likely helped that all of this fell neatly into the goblin’s understanding of what a ‘Dungeon Core’ could do.

When they had finished, and Alpha had presented the Antchaser with a suit of Federation field armor, the young man had openly wept. Then again, given that his left eye wouldn’t stop twitching and Alpha could see his muscles physically writhe under his skin, maybe the goblin was simply glad it was all over.

It hadn’t been that bad! Sure, ‘Hell Week’ was different for AI, and Alpha had suppressed most of his memory involving his “special training” with SEAU - 03. Still, Alpha was sure that these biologicals just had a thing for overreacting.

If they didn’t break you down, how were they ever supposed to build you back up?! (Sometimes literally!)

The armor Alpha had gifted the goblin was standard issue for all expeditionary soldiers. Waterproof, weatherproof, climate controlled, and rated against many small arms fire, from ballistic to explosive and even energy weapons! The design was so optimized that he’d even incorporated aspects of it, such as the improved plating, into the carapaces of the new V-2s.

Of course, that meant Alpha had to modify the humanoid armor some so that it matched.

Alpha might have been stuck on a barbaric planet, but that wasn’t an excuse for sloppy aesthetics!

He also chose to pointedly ignore the current state of his ‘Core Room.’ It was still a work in progress!

After that, it had only been a matter of scouting the forest for signs of the other goblin hunters.

Unfortunately, the adventurers were doing the same, likely realizing that the common villagers didn’t have the information they sought. By the time Alpha and Antchaser set out, the adventurers were already out in full force. The goblin hunters, recognizing that the village was no longer safe, had slowly coalesced into small groups spread out through the forest.

Of the 25 hunters out of the village at the time of the attack, Alpha and Anchaser had only rescued 11, including Boarslayer’s group. The rest had already been captured or had… resisted, to disastrous results.

Most of those were severely injured and would need time in a med-pod before they could begin training. That was another issue they had to deal with. While Antchaser had been rather quick to accept Alpha’s training and the new ideas he brought along, the other goblins were proving to be more… stubborn.

As a tribal society, the goblins were weary of the strange and alien concepts Alpha brought to the table. They were warriors and hunters, not shock troopers. Yet, they needed to learn if Alpha’s plan was to work.

Alpha had seen what trying to play the ‘hero’ had gotten him. So this time, they would be their own heroes, with the support of the mysterious ‘Dungeon Core’ backer, of course. If his plan worked well, Alpha would have time to focus on the colony and build up his defenses while gaining an extra ‘arm’ he could use to reach out and touch someone. One that doubled as a shield if need be.

Yep. It was the classic “arm the enemy of my enemy” tactic. One practiced and perfected by humanity for millennia.

But, of course, in any such endeavor, there was always a… problem child.

—————————————————————

The large figure roared and rushed the three blank-helmeted figures, their weapon raised high above their head, like an expensive club. Two of the enemies crouched and pointed their weapons at the charging behemoth while a third raised an outstretched hand.

A shimmering hexagonal shield flashed into existence between them.

The two kneeling figures fired, their weapons cracking like thunder as bullets pinged off the surface of the charging figure’s thick, heavy armor. A few bullets landed true, striking the larger figure’s less protected areas around the thigh and shoulder, throwing blood into the air. But the heavy was undeterred.

With a roar, they reached the glowing barrier and slammed their weapon into it. The barrier held, if barely, the large pack on the standing enemy’s back glowing brightly as it struggled to maintain the energy field. The heavy swung their weapon at the barrier again and again; all the while, the two kneeling figures peppered their frame from a point-blank range.

The barrier cracked and shattered on the fifth strike, though so did the heavy’s weapon. They gave a cheer of victory… only for one enemy with the now smoking backpack to pull out a long cylinder and roll it toward them. The kneeling figures hastily pressed their fingers against their helmets, which darkened a shade.

Boom!

The battlefield lit up in like a star as the flashbang went off.

The heavy cried out in pain and rubbed at their eyes. The kneeling figures took the opening. Tossing their weapons aside, they acted as one and charged the heavy, each grabbing one of the figure’s massive legs. Then, they lifted the servos in their own armor, working overtime to amplify their strength.

Slowly, the heavy’s feet left the ground, and they toppled backward.

The two enemies who’d grabbed the heavy’s legs scrambled forward and used their weight and augmented strength to pin the heavy’s arms while the third removed a long metal rod from their backpack. They walked forward, jammed the rod into an opening in the heavy armor, then flipped a switch.

Electricity visibly raced down the length of the rod, and the heavy convulsed.

After far longer than should have been necessary, the heavy stopped moving, and the figure with the rod removed it.

The three figures cheered at their victory, and the two pinning the heavy’s arms stood up.

That had been a mistake.

The heavy’s hand suddenly shot out and wrapped around the backpack enemy’s neck.

Crack!

The backpack enemy fell limp.

WHAM!

The heavy backhanded one of the two remaining enemies, causing them to fly through the air for several meters.

BANG!

Thunder sounded as a blood hole appeared in the heavy’s head, the remaining enemy having had the presence of mind to draw their sidearm at the last second. The heavy snarled, then crumpled back to the ground.

//TIME!// came the voice from the heavens.

The world froze. Then, it flickered, and everything reset.

The damage from the battle was gone. The blood splatters on both side’s armor vanished. And all three of the smaller figures stood to one side, cheering.

The larger, heavy, now whole and healthy, roared and threw her helmet to the ground.

“This is dragon dung! I would have won if your cheap weapons hadn’t kept breaking!” Boarslayer rumbled.

Alpha sighed, though he could understand her frustration. After all, This was the third time in a row she’d lost.

Alpha turned to Antchaser, who was watching the simulated battle alongside him, and asked, “Is she always like this?”

Antchaser sighed as well as said, “Unfortunately, yes. Don’t get me wrong, Boarslayer is likely the best warrior with the greatest battle-sense of all of us. But she is… stubborn in her ways.”

Stubborn was an understatement, in Alpha’s opinion.

It had been two days since Alpha had rescued the 11 goblins, Antchaser included. In that time, they’d undergone nearly three months of intense translight training. Most of them adapted quickly and had taken to the new equipment with gusto.

After all, they were all hunters and warriors by trade. They were used to the battlefield and could understand the benefits of what Alpha offered them.

The only outlier was the largest and strongest of them, Boarslayer. As Antchaser said, it wasn’t as if she was stupid. Far from it. The woman showed a knack for the battlefield to such an extent that she could make even some Federation elites look like amateurs.

No, the problem was the woman insisted that the only ‘proper’ way to face the enemy was in a forward charge, meeting them strength for strength. She could out-maneuver, outplay, and trick even some of Alpha’s stored simulacrums of elite Federation soldiers.

But she would throw away that advantage every single time to meet them head-on.

Like some kind of berserker OCD.

It had gotten to the point the other goblin teams were learning to use it to their advantage, leading to this result.

Alpha had tried speaking to her about it, though the conversation had been… interesting.

—————————————————————

“Ranged weapons are for cowards! Real warriors speak with their fists!”

“You split a man in two by throwing your axe!”

“Yes! My axe!”

“But you threw it!”

“Because it’s an axe!”

—————————————————————

Suffice it to say, they got nowhere.

“I… may have a solution,” Antchaser said.

“Oh?” Alpha responded.

Antchaser lifted a small tablet and pulled up a program. Alpha was slightly impressed by how quickly the small goblin adapted to the technology. In stark contrast to Boarslayer, the goblin devoured all the information Alpha had made available almost as quickly as the Slatewalker children.

Alpha pulled up what Antchaser wanted to show him.

Then, mentally grinned.

“Interesting… Yes… yes, this might work indeed.” Alpha said.

He uploaded the design and turned back to Antchaser. “I’ll get working on this. Gather the teams and tell them to get ready. We start the operation tonight.”