Future Shock

Vol. 1 - Chapter 5 | Expanding Presence

—~~— —~~— —~~—

The Viridisan forest, a large forest spanning a southern portion of the southwestern disputed region, while less of a disputed region and more of an unclaimed one however. The prominent concentration of monster nests made it lose the interest in nearby nations, even the superpowers for widespread settling. Even mild Mana fluctuations in certain areas made it unfavourable for external powers to even settle down as a colonial frontier.

Overall it was a so-called 'green wasteland', lush and teeming with life, but the downsides outweigh it; the only ones to call it home are the desperate, the daring, and the rogue.

Such status may be contested now.

Within the foliage of the forest a monumental grey block of a structure contrasted with the lush green surrounding it. Following a purely brutalist architectural style, the outpost was the only thing brightly illuminated with its light sources most inside, some outside.

Just a short distance from it, a mild shuffling by the dense foliage went seemingly unnoticed. Goblins.

The 3rd most ubiquitous monster in Geo, quite frankly the equivalent of pests. However they are sentient enough to be cunning and develop tools and strategy, despite being a weaker level monster, they have been known to hunt in groups with decent coordination amongst another. Many have fallen victim, and they were only ever killed or driven back by superior skill, numbers, and/or weapons.

The group of goblins patiently watched the base, part of their attention towards the female occupants of the base that were visible from either inside or outside the base. Pure Goblins don't have any females, unlike Goblin-type Demi-humans, so the brutes often have rape as a part of their pillages in-Order to procure more goblins before eating those victims.

Moments pass as suddenly most personnel returned inside the base in a near-ordered pace, few remain outside. The goblins have a mild bit of common sense, the things they are seeing are practically alien, but they are still instinctually-driven monsters, so they slowly wandered away from sight before they soon locked their gazes on a female soldier just by the side of the base alone, slowly checking an instrument of function unknown to the goblins.

They waited until the time was right to strike and slowly take the personnel away one-by-one, the group of goblins slowly and quietly approached the female soldier with her back turned against them as she seemed to inspect the device, a loud clicking sound was heard and the goblins briefly stopped before continuing.

"Heh..." The soldier still with her back turned towards them, grinned near maniacally.

She quickly turned the Lewis machine gun towards the goblins, who too reacted quickly to her movement, one leaned forward attempting to stab her before a loud bang forced the rest to recoil in shock, and the one who leapt collapsed lifelessly onto the grass, it's reddish-green blood pooling out profusely.

"How does it feel being ugly and bad at stealth?" The soldier mocked a condescending grin plastered on her face.

"—Graaaa!" The goblins all growled, 5 from the group attempted to rush her all at once.

Only for several other soldiers to pop out the sides and quickly dispatch them.

"*tongue click* that's anti-climactic." The soldier mused, before she quickly opened fire on the goblins, the machine gun shredding through much of them. The other soldiers joined in firing off their bolt-action rifles.

The lead goblin of the group managed to be the farthest before a machete was thrown, slicing off its leg and falling to the ground. One of the Male soldiers approached the leader, boasting an expression akin to seeing an unwanted bug. He slowly raised his rifle and then proceeded to pierce the goblins skull with his bayonet.