My Big Goblin Space Program chpt 136-138

Hey everyone! hope you're doing well. Here are the next 3 advance chapters for My Big Goblin Space Program!

Just as a heads up, there will be no update this coming weekend on Royal Road or Patreon. I am taking some time off this week to enjoy Monster Hunter and spend time with my wife.

Chapter 136 - Apollo Rising

It wasn’t the first time I’d flown over Lanclova, but it was the first time I’d done it straddling 30,000 RPMs of turbine power. Twisting in the seat, I could see the rest of the fleet getting into what passed for a formation for goblins. After the Whistler had nearly taken us out of the sky, I decided to trust to goblin instincts for chaotic maneuvering. En masse, goblins moved almost more like a fluid. I’d seen it my first day on Rava when their eclectic pathfinding flowed through the forest, leaving a trail of semi-cleared greenery in their wake.

Likewise, the pilots of the aircraft twisting around each other in the sky, corkscrewing and barrel rolling, coming within a few chooms of each other’s hulls in passing, but somehow coordinated in a way the scientist in me couldn’t quantify. Maybe it was a product of the goblin pseudo-gestalt that powered the tech tree. It certainly wasn’t goblin air traffic control, because they were entirely comprised of forest goblins, and therefore non-verbal—just like most of the pilots circling the bluff. The general traffic frequency sounded like a howler monkey acapella sing-a-long to a thrash metal song. I honestly don’t even know why they had a radio in their tower.

The Package separated from the general traffic and headed northwest, and I flew down close to the abomination of an aircraft (even more-so than a helicopter). Gemini had been resurrected. But now, instead of a hanging gondola, it was an oblong framework built around the hot air envelopes giving it lift. But the hot air wouldn’t be enough to haul around all the metal we’d added on to it. That was the job of the four tilting turbine motors at each corner. At the front, the goblins had carved a prow to look like one of their skull masks. All together, it gave it a top-down silhouette a bit like a sea turtle, except that it trailed black, oily smoke. I had to throttle down almost to minimum flight speed to not outpace Gemini-II. Our first ‘dread-naughty’ as the System deemed it, was faster than any hot-air aircraft had a right to be, but still not exactly a speed demon.

The sparker crackled. “Oy, King, which one o’ them’s you?” came Armstrong’s voice.

I dropped down close to the aircraft, to the side where I could see dozens of goblins scurrying through the lattice structure behind the improvised armor panels. The whole thing wasn’t unlike one of the floating rings above the bluff, except that it surrounded a balloon strung with electrified wire.

“On your right,” I said, tipping my wings.”

Enough goblins on Gemini-II dashed to the starboard side that the engines had to tilt to compensate for the shift in gravity. At least 2 that I could see fell off from the weight shift before the course could correct itself, but personal gliders unfurled in the sky below.

“I see ya, boss! Oy!”

I could see a large hobgoblin in the back with a transmitter, jumping and waving. I waved back. The other interceptors fell in around The Package. I keyed my radio again.

“Just have the pilot follow me in, Armstrong. Chuck, we’ll stay with Gemini. Go on ahead, and report back.”

“Aye boss,”

The heavy fighter engines rumbled overhead as Chuck and his wranglers opened up the throttles and pushed forward in the sky. I pulled slightly ahead, and the massive dread-naughty was like a second moon on my tail. The other members of the fighter escort wove in and out as we flew—sometimes keeping formation, other times ranging out on the flanks.

The distance that had taken the helicopter fleet an hour to cover was maybe a third of that by jet. It was only a few minutes later when Chuck came back on the radio.

“Boss, haunts are already out. Looks like daytime patrols around the cliff. A few of ‘em climbin’ to engage us.”

“Good copy, Chuck. Time to earn your namesake.”

Eileen came on the channel. “Psh, the hobbies get all the fun.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “You’ll definitely get your chance. Just remember, stick close to Gemini-II.

“You don’t gotta worry about me or my pilots, boss. Trust.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about,” I said. “It’s that elf.”

“Ah, yeah, him. Don’t sweat it, boss!”

Easy for her to say. Heavy is the giant pumpkin head that wears the crown, and all that.

I climbed us up over a ridge, and the terrain got substantially more hilly. Up ahead, the start of the mountains reached out of the jungle, dotted with white streaks of cliff face. A few twisted contrails already curled through the distant air where Chuck and his team had engaged the patrolling night haunts. I hoped that attacking during the morning would give us the best chance at catching the nocturnal creatures unawares, making the rest of the creatures slow to rise even with the elf’s prodding. Hell, best case scenario they’d be hit with the same no-sleep penalty that afflicted goblins who didn’t get their 7 hours down. But when had I gotten the best-case scenario yet since coming to Rava?

We flew low over the ridgeline. Gemini-II banked slow, avoiding the high spots. The flying fortress didn’t exactly turn on a dime. It was low enough that some of the highest trees brushed its underbelly. Every pilot instinct in me would have told them to climb. But it was important that the elf not see them coming, so map-of-the-Earth it was. My old flight instructor would have called it scud running. But the nice thing about Rava is that there aren’t any power wires or radio towers to reach up and snatch your aircraft out of the sky.

I took an odd sort of satisfaction from flying low over the hills and ridges, low enough to see the individual trees flash by just below me. I hugged the depressions and valleys. Some of my pre-astronaut training was riding backseat in old Navy trainer jets—but even those pilots had minimum altitudes. I was lower than any of those guys had flown probably since the Gulf War.

“Just up ahead, we’ll swing around that hilltop and it should be a straight shot to the nest,” I called over the radio. Then, into the intercom, “Ready all weapons.”

My gunners made ready, loading leather belts of ammunition into the self-cycling gun and taking out the clamps that held the turret in-place. In true goblin fashion, the whole nose-ball itself rotated, so the gun wasn’t limited to simply firing directly forward. One goblin controlled the guns, the other pushed against the glass like a hamster in a ball to swing the whole ensemble around.

Ahead, we moved abeam to the hill, and I pulled us into a bank to swing us around for our final push north. The cliff face with the yawning maw came in sight. Already, I was seeing night haunts climb out and scale up the cliffs by ones and twos, until they were high enough to jump free of the wall and fly furiously to reach the fight overhead.

“Rockets!” I called.

I bumped up the throttle and lined up with the cliff mouth with the reticle etched into the canopy. “Just like shooting womprats back home,” I muttered.

“King Apollo, we are unfamiliar with this creature,” said Taquoho. “Are they native to your bluff?”

I grinned. “Nah, they’re from a galaxy far, far away,” I replied. I squeezed the trigger on my flight stick, firing our entire salvo of rockets.

The unguided rockets shot forward, roughly straight (except for one that corkscrewed off to God-knows-where). They impacted against the cliff in a ripple of explosions, knocking several night haunts free as they attempted to climb. The creatures plummeted down into the canopy, spinning helplessly. The other interceptors followed suit, sending salvos of the munitions at the nest. Dozens of rockets exploded, most of them with more flash than substance, but it made the night haunts wary of pushing back out. One of the pilots managed to get a rocket in the cliffside opening, and my flight crew started cheering as an explosion roiled back out of the cave.

If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, caves don’t have main reactors, so one perfect shot wouldn’t blow the whole thing. We were going to have to exterminate this nest the old-fashioned way. I pulled back on the stick, making way for Gemini-II.

Chapter 137 - Elven Delivery Service

Gemini-II poured on the power, and I could hear the strain of its four turbines even over the sound of my own aircraft. It sped toward the crag until the very last second, at which point all four of its rotors tilted the opposite direction. It stopped just shy of pancaking itself against the cliff face, instead bringing the prow level with the opening of the nest. A ramp descended from the prow, and two noblin igni came forward with flamethrowers. Each one was connected to a hose running back into Gemini-II, and each one belched out a column of flame that roared into the mouth of the cave to discourage any night haunts from coming out while the ramp continued to extend. Whoever the pilot of the enormous aircraft was, they brought it in close to the hole in the cliff until the ramp bridged the gap, and then the prow pushed against the cliff face. The igni pushed forward with their flamethrowers, and a stream of goblins followed across the ramp, weapons raised.

I would have liked to be there with them, charging into that darkness to face what had become a great threat to our tribe. But my place was in the sky, doing the job few other goblins had the experience to do.

“Boss, we got incoming!” called Eileen.

I banked over for a better view, seeing several night haunts who must have squeezed out of a second exit. They launched themselves in the air and circled down toward Gemini-II

“I see them,” I said. I pushed the stick over and sped toward the creatures menacing our airship. The engine whined as I poured on speed. “Remember,” I said into the intercom, “Don’t hit the balloon.”

In answer, the aircraft shuddered with the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of the self-cycling guns. One of the night haunts jerked in the air, hit by my gunner, and the rest scattered and wheeled to address the interceptors coming in. I banked left hard to avoid the grasping rear claws of a night haunt that passed within a few meters of my fuselage—close enough that its tail scraped our underside. The creature wheeled around, almost impossibly nimble (and probably thanks to some System-given skill). It beat its wings furiously, trying to catch up. We passed a jet spiraling down to the deck, wing severed, along with the night haunt who had collided with it and still clung to the ruined aircraft.

I turned the opposite way to avoid becoming a blue stain on the ridge line. Another of the interceptors angled my way, flying directly overhead with its nose gun flashing. The night haunt on my tail went down, and I turned to find a new target. There was no shortage. I spotted two silvermanes drop down from the higher altitude battle with Chuck’s heavy fighters. They found the live wires strung across the top of the envelope and flinched back, clinging instead to the wood and metal siding. The goblins still on board stabbed outward with spears and poles, but the silvermanes weren’t that easily deterred. All the while, more of my goblins poured across the ramp. I could no longer see Armstrong or the igni, who were now inside the cave. But I could see smoke rising from fissures along the ridgeline.

“Keep on ‘em!” I called out, and angled us down toward Gemini-II. I drew level with the massive airship, and then skirted her port side flying knife-edge, careful to avoid the vortices around the turbine. My gunner tracked the silvermane just as it yanked a pair of goblins out from behind the defenses and flung them out into the air. It ripped open a section of barrier and started to claw its way inside. The nose gun began to fire again, and the creature flinched back, roaring in pain from a hit on its flank. It pulled out of the hole it had created and swiped at us as we flew past. I was already pulling up as hard as possible to avoid the cliff face, bringing us around in a tight circle. My flight techs were pressed to the floor, squawking under the weight of the additional G’s we pulled. Goblin bodies with their giant heads really were not designed for maneuvers like this.

The silvermane night haunt followed, broad, powerful wings somehow able to carry it just as fast as our jet engines. It raced to cut us off, rearing up its claws, which I had no doubt would shred through the skin of the jet as easily as paper. I yanked the stick to the side, putting us in a roll. Behind me, the crew squawked as their feet lifted off the deck and they grabbed whatever was nearby to hold on. Ahead, a smoking, fiery jet smashed into the side of the cliff face, erupting in a fireball. I slammed the throttle forward, pouring on the speed as debris started to rain down.

Our interceptor shot below the worst of it, but the silvermane chasing us was struck by both falling rocks and debris from the other jet. A section of turbine engine fell right on its wing, and the creature dropped like it had an anchor tied to it.

I shook my head to clear it and pulled us back into a climb to circle around on the fight. Smoke was now pouring out of multiple fissures in the cliff face as my assault team pushed deeper into the nest behind the igni. The night haunts that did manage to escape through cracks and crevices in the stone were being engaged by Chuck’s wing of heavy fighters—who dealt with ‘haunts on their tail much more effectively thanks to their rear-facing gunners.

Amid the interceptors near Gemini-II, I spotted the biggest silvermane I’d seen yet flashing with lances of green energy. “There he is!” I shouted to my gunners. “Looks like he’s riding their alpha. Get ready!”

Pushing the stick forward, I put us at an angle to intercept the gigantic silvermane carrying the elf as it chased one of the other interceptors.

“Elf on my tail! Elf on my tail!” shouted Eileen over the radio.

“Hold on, Eileen, I’m right behind you,” I said.

We dropped into the fight in progress, and I got us lined up enough for the gunner to start thumping away with his nose guns. I couldn’t make out the elf from where we were, but I could definitely see the green spells starting to fly back at us from the back of the alpha night haunt. Its wings were massive, and it had a tail as long as at least two of our jets lined up in a row. Rounds poured out of the nose gun, striking the silvermane. It roared in frustration and broke off the chase from Eileen, though didn’t look particularly injured.

I jerked the stick to the right, narrowly avoiding one of the beams—only for another to strike us a glancing blow that erupted in a carpet of moss on our wing’s leading edge that immediately blew a screen of green fibers in front of the canopy. Unable to see properly, I hauled back and the jet struggled as it attempted to climb with a quarter of its wing surface now covered in heavy, non-lift-producing moss. The turbine behind me caught fire from the strain, and both of my loyal techs started squawking and trying to extinguish it.

“King Apollo, the flight control surfaces have become less responsive,” added Taquoho.

“No kidding,” forced out through grit teeth as I struggled with the stick. “Taquoho, be ready to bail out,”

“I do not wish to abandon this craft just yet,” he said. “Give me a moment.”

A smooth stream of pale, blue flame traced out of the console and along the electrical wires to the turbine engine. They mingled with the small orange fire, and then turned a shade closer to purple and streamed back into the console. The Turbine engine sputtered for a moment, and then roared to life again.

“Nice!” I said. “Taquoho, what did you do?”

“Quo has joined with Massa-Morez with his knowledge of your combustion engines. The celebrated union you are speaking to is Tabun-Maduri-Horal”

“So, Ta-ma-ho, now?”

“Just so.”

The whole thing had happened faster than a Vegas wedding, but it seemed to have done the trick. The added speed started to tear the moss free from the leading edge of our wing, and the canopy cleared enough that I could keep us from crashing. We were back in the fight—just in time to see the Elf take out one of Gemini-II’s turbines.

Chapter 138 – 5 Days By Badger

A bright viridian blast hit the side of the airship’s turbine. Creeper vines sprouted and were instantly sucked through the turbine fan. Flames and black smoke flared out of both sides, and the entire dreadnaught lurched to its side as they lost most of the lift in their right rear quarter. honestly, it was a miracle the turbine was still functioning at all, but that’s goblin tech. More goblins began to press over the ramp, now fleeing the fires aboard Gemini-II.

“All pilots, take out that elf!” I said into the radio. “Chuck, Eileen, on me!”

“Got it, boss,” said Eileen.

“On my way,” said Chuck.

Overhead, one of the heavy fighters stooped and started to drop down into the fray, while Eileen pulled her interceptor around. All over the sky, interceptor pilots were shifting their priorities—some at the cost of their own well-being. One collided with a silvermane, sending both tumbling to the forest below. Another was caught between two of the beasts as it made a bee-line for the elf. But enough got in close enough to menace the elf on the alpha that the massive creature reared back away from Gemini, snapping at the fighters strafing it. It roared in rage.

I set my own course to intercept, and was surprised to see a spattering of red against the front of my canopy.

“We’ve got bugs!” said Eileen.

“I think the alpha is fighting the bewitching,” I said. “Give it all the more reason. With me!”

I pointed my nose right at the night haunt, now stalled in the air above the smoking Gemini-II. It flapped furiously and snapped at the air, and I could see a red cloud spiraling, around the pair, forcing its way down the night haunt’s gullet. Looks like our elf either did a rush job on this one, or bit off more than he could chew when it came to a creature as tough as the nest leader. It jerked and twisted mid-air.

“Let ‘em have it!” I cried.

My nose gunner started pounding away, and Chuck and Eileen off my wings piled on the firepower as well. Several rockettes struck the night haunt, and I saw tufts of fur and small clouds of blood in the air. We passed close enough that I actually got a look of the elf, clinging to the thick silvery mane with one hand as his other worked a wooden staff. A cloud of red bugs surrounded both of them, and the aircraft rattled as we splattered hundreds of them across our fuselage and wings.

“Around for another pass,”  I said. I opened up the throttle and banked, keen to finish the job. Gemini-II flashed by underneath, then the cliff wall as we turned tight. I got the nose pointed again. “Gunner!” I called out.

The nose spat more rockettes, riding tiny plumes of exhaust. This time, one of them struck high on the haunt, and the elf was knocked clear of the predator as we flew past. I twisted to look over my shoulder as we climbed up and out. A little parachute canopy opened near the night haunt.

“He’s off!” called Eileen.

“Don’t let ‘im get to the ground or we’ll never find ‘im again,” warned Chuck.

“Uh…” I said, “I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about that.”

The canopy was caught in the vortexes of the front left engine. The little elf kicked his feet in the air, but  the currents were pulling his chute quickly toward the business end of the fan ducts. Ahead, more goblins were still pushing their way across the ramp into the night haunt nest or simply bailing out with—or without—personal gliders.

“Around again! If that elf gets sucked into the turbine, Gemini-II is going to crash for sure.”

I hauled us around in a high-G turn, hoping I wouldn’t black out as all the blood drained from my oversized goblin head. Still too slow. The elf drifted closer and closer to the opening, canopy caught in the downdraft. I couldn’t hear him, but I could imagine he was shouting.

“Boss, we won’t make it!” said Eileen.

But we weren’t the closest ones. The night haunt alpha shook off the last of its enchantment and roared into the air, drowning out even the sound of the jet engines. It twisted, caught sight of the elf canopy, and I swear I saw its eyes narrow. It tucked its wings, stooped down, and snapped the elf right out of the air just a few meters above the engine.

“Oof,” I said, looking away. Bad way to go—but better than the little nuisance deserved. After forcing all those bugs down the night haunt’s throat, turnabout was certainly fair play.

I leveled out as the night haunt alpha caught sight of us again. It held in the air for a moment, then roared again and wheeled around in the air, heading away from us. The night haunts who remained abandoned their chases and stooped to follow the alpha northwest over the top of the ridge. The remaining fighters and interceptors who had just been frantically flying for their lives, now found themselves relieved. I keyed my radio.

“Stay on ‘em, lads! Make sure they’ve got a good reason to not come back this way ever again,”

“Wot about us, boss?” asked Eileen.

“Stay on me,” I said. I looked toward the northwest. Five days by ground for a badger. “We’re going on a little recon flight.”

I patted my console. “You with us? Erm, Tamaho?”

“We are, King Apollo.”

I put us into a bank, leveling out at a northwesterly heading. Off my left wing, I spotted Eileen’s aircraft keeping pace. The other surviving interceptor fell in on my other side, , though it trailed an alarming amount of smoke. Still, it held altitude as we flew over the foothills and between snow-capped peaks that jutted up from the tree line. We flew along sheer cliffs and through a deep canyon cut by a raging river, then over the waterfall which emptied into a massive, crystalline lake hundreds of feet below.

I dipped the nose down. We skimmed the water’s surface, passing over massive shadows moving just below and a herd of animals the size of thundercleaves grazing near the shore. Water gave way to forest, which gave way to rolling hills overgrown with brush and criss-crossed by streams, and then I spotted it: The shining line of the ocean running thin and narrow at the horizon. I urged the aircraft on. This was the the first sign of the sea I’d had since coming to Rava. And the shining, glistening band in the distance was split by a black mark thrusting up like a dagger.

“Boss, is that the human city?” asked Eileen.

“I believe it is,” I replied. “Follow me.”