Chapter 6 - Goblin Warfare
28 Jun 2023GoblinCoffeeShop
**Dear Reader, you are in the possession of a manuscript that has not yet been made public. For the purposes of RP and squadron lore, this story is secret and will not be known by your commander character. This story contains some mature language and content. Thank you, and enjoy.**Shortcut to Chapter 5
Chapter 6
“Goblin Warfare”
Bean Terminal, orbiting Anekaliti 2
July 18th, 3304
(same day)
The lift swallowed him up, pulling him deeper into the station and the buzzing howl of alarms. When the doors opened, the first thing to hit him was the smell, something like burning plastic, eggs, and hot steel. He put a hand to the edge of the doorway and leaned out for a cautious look down the hallway.
It was darker than usual, orange tinted emergency lights casting a sick glow at points along the walls. Where harsh fluorescent lights had once lined the ceiling, rows of shattered fixtures now lead to a twisted hole, and warped chunks of the road above slumped downward into the smoky hall.
"Holy shit…" Goblin’s chest started to pound as he looked down where the apartment was. Was Griffin inside? Was he hurt? Was Jeffrey home yet? What the fuck even happened? He broke out into a jog, careful not to slip on the bits of glass and debris that crunched underfoot.
“HEY! HEY STOP!” came a shout.
Goblin slowed, catching sight of a yellow-clad figure in the hazy light. “Fuck..” he whispered.
“It’s not safe here kid, you need to go back!” the guard shouted, lugging some barricades and a roll of caution tape down the hallway.
“My friends live here, I need to make sure they’re okay!” The stinking air scratched Goblins throat, and he coughed into his arm.
“Evacuation protocol on this section already!” The man shouted over the alarms, “You need to get out of here, we don’t know if it’s safe!”
“Is everyone out?!”
“Don’t know, give us an hour or so! System services will have more info soon!”
Goblin noticed this guard wasn’t carrying a rifle like the ones he saw earlier. He squinted down the hallway again, stretching his collar over his face to block the fumes. It seemed like the damage was mostly on the level above… but to make a crater this big… if anyone had been home, if they were hurt or if there was a fire inside…?
“Hey what the fuck!” the guard barked as Goblin broke into a sprint down the hallway. The air was burning his lungs, but he brought up the door clearance on his datawatch while he ran. Skidding to a stop at the apartment, he held his wrist up to the door and waited for it to unlock.
Nothing.
“STOP! Hands behind your back!” The guard tackled Goblin into the floor, and in seconds he was face down, wincing and breathless. “ID, right now!”
“Urghhh.. My… datawatch..” Goblin moved his left hand to show the guard his wrist.
“Unlock it!”
Goblin’s other arm was released, still face down in the debris with a knee jabbing into his back. He swiped open the datawatch, sucking in shallow breaths.
He felt the guard shift as if to grab something. “Need a background check, detainee by the blast area!”
A staticky voice sizzled a reply. “Copy, send it to secure channel B.”
“Sent.” The guard twisted Goblin’s right arm behind his back again and shouted, “The fuck are you doing here?!”
“I live with… Jordan… he’s AEC…” He coughed weakly, dull pain soaking into him at random. “Might be… inside just… need to know…they’re okay.”
The radio squawked again, “He’s whitelisted, Civ level 3.”
Goblin felt a flinch and the pressure softened. “Confirm, Civ 3?” The guard said, “This kid, copy?”
“Affirmative, and clean record. You better have a good reason.”
“Copy…” The weight lifted off of Goblin, and he heard the guard mutter something under his breath. “This never happened, you understand!” Goblin rolled to see the man running back towards the half finished barrier. He pushed himself back to his feet, knees and palms stinging, and examined himself in the gloom.
The apartment… Griffin… “Fuck,” he breathed.
He tried to see if his datawatch was damaged and queued up the unlock signal. Again, nothing. Then he noticed a tiny red icon on the watch with the words “emerg protocol, locks disengaged.” He pushed on the door, and it gave way. Flicking his hands in frustration, he shouted into the apartment. “GRIFFIN!?.... GRIFFIN??” As his eyes adjusted he was able to feel his way the the lightswitch. “GRIFFIN??” Still no answer. He anxiously searched Griffin’s room, then the rest of the apartment, but there was no one to be found. Everything seemed to be in okay shape, and the handful of objects on the floor might have been there before the blast anyway.
“Fuck…” Goblin actually savored the stuffy air of the apartment after nearly choking on the vapors outside. He tried to think. He rubbed an itch on his face and winced. Gritty traces of blood were on both sides of his hand. “God fucking dammit,” he muttered. He checked his datawatch.
Conversation with Steve
S - Goblin, I already got word from several customers. They haven’t confirmed it but it’s certainly an attack. Please get in touch with your friends and take the rest of the day off. Safety first.
S - I don’t want to alarm you, but there may be more coming. Make sure you have a plan to leave if things go badly over the next day or so. Hopefully this is just a freak occurrence.
S - And I’ll be here if you need anything.
He called Jeffrey.
“Hey Trev, I mean, Gob sorry.” Jeffrey answered.
“You weren’t at the apartments,” Goblin blurted out, not sure exactly what he meant.
“Uh.. no like I said, signing the contracts with Empire, what’s up?
Goblin let out a sigh of relief, “There was an attack or something at the road above the …road. I mean, y’know the one right outside, there’s a big fuckin hole in the ceiling.”
“Wait.. what? A hole in the apartment?”
“No! No the fuckin’, the walkway outside? Y’know the road on the next floor up? It got blown up.”
“What the fuck, more Blue League shit??”
“I dunno man, our section’s been evac’d, I’m grabbing our stuff. Tell me what you need and I’ll… bring it somewhere?”
“Fuck, alright.. Yeah I’m kinda far from there but… hang on.” Muffled speech was heard on Jeffrey’s end while Goblin started tossing charge cables and clothing into a suitcase. “Yeah actually they have a detachment headed down there now so I’ll hop a ride with them. Meet you at Life Support?”
“Sure.” Goblin started scrounging in the bedroom with a grimace. “Some of this underwear better be fuckin’ clean…”
===
Steve pulled out a white plastic case and opened it on the tabletop. He quickly withdrew bandages, ointment, pads, gloves, and lined them up in a row. “Alright Goblin, let’s see what we’re working with here.” Goblin was seated on the tabletop in the deserted cafe, closest to the counter. Steve gloved his hands and shone a flashlight on Goblin’s face. “So, glass in your face huh. That’s gonna suck.”
Goblin chuffed a humorless laugh.
“This won’t feel good. Ready?”
Goblin nodded before Steve went to work brushing off blood and dirt and disinfecting the scrapes. A memory floated back to him, sitting in the medical room at the settlement, Dr. Singh’s gaunt face in the harsh lighting, staring at his PDA. The man always unsettled Goblin when he was a kid… well, he had always been a kid.
He winced as the disinfectant slid razors of pain across his skin. Goblin felt like this was his first time seeing the doctor as a man. And it was Steve’s careful eyes and steady hand in front of him, not that unfeeling creep in the pink lab coat. He watched Steve step back and toss some trash in a bag. “You actually got pretty lucky there. Not bad at all. Anywhere else?”
Goblin checked his elbows, but his sleeves were intact. “Not sure.. Probably just my hands, I think my clothes saved the rest of me. Just a little sore.”
“Alright. Palms up, sir.”
Just then a hollow bonking came from the front of the cafe. Jeffrey was standing outside the glass door with an orange uniform folded over his arm. Steve looked over his shoulder, then looked back at Goblin. “He can wait.”
Goblin genuinely laughed this time. “No, it’s fine, let him in.”
Steve set the tweezers on a pad and pulled the remote from his apron to unlock the door. “It’s open!” he hollered.
Jeffrey pushed through and closed the door carefully behind him. “Thanks Steve… shit you okay, Gob?” Jeffrey walked over and tossed his uniform on a chair.
“Yeah I’m good. Got your stuff in the suitcase.”
“What the fuck happened? Were you…?”
“I’m fine. I just fell on some busted glass and stuff. I’m good.”
Jeffrey nodded, staring at Goblin’s hands. “The officer that drove me back told me what happened. Turns out it this wasn’t AEC or the Blues. Civilian made a hit on a Blue League vehicle.”
Goblin saw Steve’s eyes stray to the side, but he picked up the tweezers and breathed the words, “Steady if you can, bud.” Goblin wasn’t sure if Steve was talking about his hands or how he should respond to Jeffrey.
“So, wait, how is this…?” Goblin winced, his words trailing off.
“It was a Bean citizen. They claimed the Blues killed their spouse in the cruise attack, so they took out one of the Blue League company transports. And then they just turned themselves in.”
Steve wiped the tweezers on the cleansing pad, listening in silence.
Goblin tried to focus on Jeffrey. “Did you find out, like.. If anyone was hurt?”
“Oh yeah all the Blue League targets are super dead. I think a few injuries reported besides that. Pretty successful attack.”
Goblin’s hands burned as Steve wiped them clean. “You’re all set, Goblin. Bandages tonight, let the ointment work. After that, try to keep it clean, fresh bandages for work. Register only for the next few days. And keep your head straight… make a plan to travel quickly if you need to go. Understand?” Steve’s eyes pierced Goblin, his words laden with concern.
“Yea. I hear you.” Goblin looked down at his gauzed up palms. “Thanks for this.”
“It’s nurse shit. Anyone could do it.” Steve cleaned the tweezers and put the rest of the first aid kit back together.
Goblin looked up at Jeffrey. “Well… You think we should see if the evac was lifted yet?”
“It won’t be. Half of the area’s a crime scene, and then they gotta assess repairs.”
“Damn. You hear from Griffin?”
“Oh yeah I called him after I talked with you. He was at work, so he’s just gonna book a night somewhere.”
“Where at? If it’s close, maybe we can scope it out.”
“Nah, I didn’t ask. Onboarding starts Monday anyhow.”
Steve interjected from the counter, “Okay, Goblin and Company, I gotta close up. Please be careful out there.”
“Yeah sorry Steve, we’ll get going. Thanks again.”
===
Jeffrey walked alongside Goblin pulling both suitcases as they wandered the main hall. Despite the shocking events, people still went about their ways and ships still shook the windows to the docking bay as they passed. Goblin walked with his hands in his hoodie pocket and his head covered to hide the scrapes and bandages.
“Thanks for getting my shit, man. Gonna need it,” Jeffrey said.
“Yeah, well, I figured we both would. Wasn’t sure what was gonna happen.”
“Well training starts next week, looks like I’ll be headed to one of the moon bases.”
“Back to frozen dirt, huh?”
Jeffrey chuckled, “Yeah sounds great.” He raised the handle of Goblin’s suitcase. “So, you comin’ with?”
Goblin took a few steps in silence and shrugged. “Steve was worried there might be more violence in the station soon,” he said, his fingers fidgeting with the bandages.
“Yeah, I don’t think so. It was only one guy. Pretty freak occurrence.”
“You don’t think other people will start to follow suit? If one person gets away with it…”
“Well he succeeded, but he didn’t get away with it. He’s under arrest. He has to be. Legally speaking those Blues were innocent unless they had a bounty. The problem with that is by the time they have a bounty, they’ve already killed someone. So the attacker just decided not to wait for that to happen.” Jeffrey nodded as he spoke, stark indifference on his face.
“How many people did they kill?”
“Not sure yet. A handful at least, it was like a van or something.”
Goblin gazed at a landing pad illuminated on the other side of the docking bay. “I can’t believe it’s happening right here in the station. It’s just awful.”
“Well... the Blue League is pretty fuckin awful.”
“Yeah, but a bombing right in the streets? I mean, did you see the damage? What if I had been there? It’s bad enough if bystanders got hurt, but they could have died, dude. It would have been just like the cruise.”
“This was nothing like the cruise. It was a perfectly executed attack.”
Goblin tried to read Jeffrey’s eyes. Was there satisfaction in their hollow depths? “Jeffrey, we’re talking about mass murder and you’re acting like it’s a good thing.”
“Yeah?” Jeffrey looked back at Goblin, his blank expression seemed to challenge Goblin to say anything else.
“And you’re okay with that? It’s one thing to want to protect people. It’s another thing to support terrorism in the station.”
Jeffrey stopped in his tracks. “Look, I know it’s hard for you to get your innocent head around this, but if your family died maybe you would get it.”
“Jeffrey… that’s not fair.”
“Nothing about this is fucking fair, Trev, that’s the fucking point. Listen, I decided to fight against some evil bastards, to keep people safe. And I hoped that you would fucking get that. Maybe you’d have my back too, and hell, maybe even get yourself on a ship like you wanted!” He gestured towards the docking bay windows.
“Jeffrey, I am... This is… look, I’m on your side. These companies… all I see is killing. Both sides, killing people, maybe killing innocent people too, and for what? Do you really think AEC cares about you more than I do? These companies have an agenda, how much do you think you really matter to them?”
“I’m not fighting for an agenda, Trevin, and I’m not EVER going to take an innocent life. I’m fighting for something that fucking matters. So you can take your “supporting terrorism” bullshit and shove it up your ass.” He flipped Goblin’s suitcase to the floor and started to walk away.
“What the fuck, Jeffrey, don't be such a dick!”
Jeffrey swiveled back towards him. “Here’s the thing. You are making a choice. You can choose to be passive, or you can choose what you really want in life. You can choose people like me who actually care about you, or you can choose your little fucking cult on their little ball of frozen shit!”
Goblin stood in the hall with his mouth half open. Other people in the hall were staring at Jeffrey now.
“But you better choose by Monday, Trevin. Before you spend the rest of your life at Zhang Fei and never see your friends again. Figure it out.” And with that, Jeffrey stomped away.
“Don’t fucking call me Trevin, asshole,” Goblin spat. Anger throbbed in his burning palms. He snatched his suitcase from the floor and stormed off. The hallway disappeared as memories swarmed his vision. The altercation with Jeffrey, the guard heaving him into the floor, the bits of glass being pried from his flesh, Max’s disgusting grin, the flicker and lurch of the station when the bomb went off, Barcelona’s weathered eyes, ‘It’s what makes us suffer,’ the settlement, the commitment, the static of the radio call, ‘He’s whitelisted. Civ level 3.’
Goblin squeezed his eyes shut, his neck quivering as he tried to take a slow, deep breath. What now? Fuck Jeffrey, Max ghosted, the apartments were locked down, and he didn’t want Griffin to see him like this. “Think… fucking… where the fuck am I going?” he growled.
He needed a new plan. But what? All he wanted to do right now was find a place to sleep. To turn his back on today and not be awake anymore.
He looked up to realize his feet had carried him to the self service hangars. He scowled at the door. Opened it. And went inside.
To be continued...