My Big Goblin Space Program [Isekai, Faction-building, Reincarnation, Goblins]

System's problem was two-fold—it was fast asleep, and it was being kept so by a constant dose of the toxins the null devils poisoned the planet with. So we needed a medicine that both neutralized toxins and stimulated the metabolism. Once I learned the truth about System's condition, it had really clicked just how much it knew what it was doing by putting me in a goblin body.

Yes, the Goblin Tech Tree was an amazing source of rapid advancement. But maybe if I'd been put in the body of a human prince, like Ben, I could have bent the industry of a developed country toward producing new technologies and done so nearly as fast and with much more safety. So no, the rapid iteration of the GTT wasn't the only, or even, I suspected, the primary reason that I was blue, furry, and a meter tall. The truth was that System needed the goblins themselves. Thousands of them. Or, at least, certain parts of them.

When the javaline hunted us at the behest of the humans and elves, they sought one of the oldest remedies on Rava—goblin tongues to neutralize poison, and goblin ears for 'potency'. Since the day I'd met with the First Daughter of the Midnight Queen, every goblin that had died had its ears and tongue preserved until we had a fifty-kilochoom dose of the powerful drug. Enough stimulant, I was told, to turn a whole herd of thundercleaves into marathon runners. After we'd made peace with Habberport, the elves had mixed and processed the anti-venom with their alchemy (and probably siphoned off plenty for themselves in payment).

The rocket motor at the back of the delivery device ignited, and the giant dart shot forward. Its shriek echoed through the tunnel, and it hit the wall of pearlescent flesh so hard it sent colorful ripples out from the impact site, undulating with all the colors of the rainbow. The rocket sputtered and died, and the empty delivery dart slipped to the floor of the tunnel.

"That it, boss?" asked Buzz.

"That's it," I said. I'd grown the tribe from a few dozen to 10,000 strong, developed engines, jets, rockets, and railguns. I'd launched 15 manned space flights and crashed a space station into the moon, fought armies of pig-men, giant monsters, magic bugs, and wave after wave of spaceborne parasites. And it all amounted to the injection of a few liters of dubious back-alley medicine by an extremely unqualified physician.

"Let's just hope it's fast actin'," said Buzz, eying a bulge forming in the ceiling above us.

I pulled the pistol off my belt and looked back to where the scrapper line was failing. These goblins could only die once. But I would die over and over again, each fresh death a new agony as another goblin paid for it with their own life. And with 9,000 goblins still back on Rava, I could be doing a lot of dying. "Yeah," I said. "Let's hope."

The tunnel rumbled around us. I turned, looking at the wall of flesh—which was now moving. The null devil nymphs, so eager to push in and devour us, screeched in alarm and panicked, turning around and fleeing back up the tunnel ramp.

"I think she's wakin' up, boss," shouted Buzz, gripping the side of the empty cart for balance.

"I think the null devils have the right idea," I said, screaming over the cacophony. "Let's get out of here!"

We left the mine cart and stumbled up to the handful of remaining scrappers and wranglers who still stood. All of them bore signs of combat—be it injuries, cuts and burns on their space suits, or simply being so coated in null devil guts that their fur looked black instead of blue.

Armstrong blinked at me, two white eyes the only clean part on his front. "Boss, I think we scared 'em off," he said. Then seemed to notice the quaking for the first time. "Hey, is something going on?"

I pushed him toward the mouth of the tunnel. "Go! Escape now, talk later," I said.

We continued to flee up the tunnel, collecting other pockets of resistance along the way as we marched over a carpet of roasted nymph carcasses. I found Promo backed into a staging area with a dozen other goblins, and Chuck had been forced back into a redundant loop of tunnel where nymphs pressed them on both sides. The rumbling was so loud I couldn't get my words across to either, but luckily no one wanted to stay in the tunnel, and we emerged underneath a sky thick with circling null devils.

"Why ain't they attacking us?" asked Chuck.

"Look yonder," said Promo, pointing to the west.

I followed his gaze, and gaped at the hundreds of full-size null devils that circled above a rising bulge in the canyons that must have been at least twenty kilometers away. Water sloughed off as something of enormous bulk pressed up from beneath the inland sea, creating a mountain where none had existed before. Rock, stone, and water tumbled away, leaving a mass of pearlescent flesh that shimmered in the setting sun.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

<Ahh…. Goblin Technology Unlocked: Goblin fix-em-ups>

I had thought Saturn V rockets were big. I'd thought that the bluffs were big, null devils were big, and the ships of the Midnight Queen's navy were big. System's true form made them feel like insignificant toys as it pushed itself from the ground. Massive wings unfurled, stretching from one horizon to the other, and glowing in the sunlight. A long, sinuous neck uncoiled—not unlike Dame Redfang's, only about 10,000 times longer. This creature, this celestial, planetary-scale creature whose mere existence warped reality itself, had woken up. And seeing it move, watching as it dwarfed canyons and mountains and stretched up into the sky, I now failed to see how I ever thought such a creature wouldn't be capable of bending mere physical laws to its whims.

It opened two pairs of eyes like cerulean lakes unthawing after winter, as it twisted to regard the null devils buzzing around its head like wasps.

<Vile pests.>

One by one, the null devils in the air around… whatever this creature now was, popped. their bodies imploded, squeezed like the juice from a rotten orange. Their ichor became a rainstorm of black filth that spread outward across Raphina's surface. The invisible wave reached us, and every null devil in the sky above the drill site imploded. Within seconds of it waking, the entire sky was clear once more—black smudge replaced by a pearlescent shimmer in the air. The null devils were incredibly resistant to magic attacks. But this dragon had just crushed every single one within eyesight. Possibly every single one on the whole moon.

The creature stretched, eyes scanning until its vision centered on us. I felt the weight of its attention wrap me, threaten to crush the life from me, and then soften to the gentlest pressure. It leaned over, head parting clouds as it stooped to regard the few of us left. My taskmasters and I stared up.

<I dreamed of you. We were flying.>

"S-S-System?" I stammered.

It straightened. <No longer.>

"Ah," I said. I could still feel its presence, feel it sifting through my mind and bringing memories to the surface.

<I have done great harm, in my need. There is an imbalance.>

I thought for a moment. "You think you owe us for saving you?"

<I know that you do not see it as such.>

"But, since we're here…"

<Since we are here, what would you ask? Or perhaps you would prefer 'awaiting query?'>

I smiled, despite myself. System may be gone, but it was still a part of this nameless dragon, this Queen of Queens that beggared believability with its very existence. I began to count off on my fingers. "Ringo and Ben have been trapped here for years. I want them to go home."

Not-System lifted its head to Rava and stilled for a moment. The fur on my arms began to raise at a potential energy that filled there air, then settled.

<I have returned Ringo. Ben does not wish to leave. I will honor his request.>

Armstrong elbowed me.

"Next, the goblins. This was a one-way trip. I want you to send everyone on Raphina back home."

<It shall be. Or perhaps the rest would prefer to come here? I shall confer with each of them. Either would be, as you might call it, child's play. Though I suppose I am freshly hatched, myself. What of yourself. Will you go with your goblins? Or will you return to Earth?>

I considered. "What are you going to do now?" I asked.

The dragon spread its wings, and they were so vast that they cast the entire valley into twilight.

<I think I shall fly to distant stars and see all this universe has to offer, as did my mother before me.>

"So what happens to Rava? All the magic and skills just go with you when you leave?"

A set of images flowed into my mind, blossoming like a sunrise—a creature, still massive by terrestrial standards, yet a tiny, frail thing when held against the awakened entity before me. It was curled up, deep within the ground and kept warm by flows of magma.

<My daughter yet sleeps.> the creature said. It reached down into the hole that it made, resting one city-sized paw on the spot where it had emerged. <I yet wonder what form her dreams will take. Her sleep will shape this world as I have. Will you stay to witness it?>

I shook my head. "I only ever had this one goal. Walk on the moon. Then, after the accident, it became to be the first double amputee to walk on the moon." I looked down at the blades protruding from my space suit resting on the Raphina soil. "I've done that, now. There's nothing back on Earth for me. The only place left to go is the stars. Would you take me with you?"

<I think… I would very much like that experience. There is much my sleeping mind wished to say to you—but was unable. I will share these thoughts as we soar the cosmos. But you have one task yet unfinished, I believe.>

"I do," I said. I looked at the other taskmasters, then overhead where some personal gliders were descending from the balloon platforms. "Some goodbyes to make. But first, I brought a little something, in case we were successful."

I opened my bag. There was a small, brass plate that I withdrew and handed to Chuck and Armstrong. "They're your tribe, now," I said. "Take this, find a good spot for it before you go back."

"Won't be the same without you, boss. But we'll do you proud," said Chuck.

Armstrong looked at the front and back of the plate. "It's got no pictures, boss. Just them squiggles wot Rufus puts in his book. Wot's it say?"

"Just a little message for any that come after," I said. I turned back to the celestial dragon. "So where are we going first?" I asked.

I felt the subtle pressure of her probing my mind. Images floated up to the surface: The rings of Saturn, the Pillars of Creation, the first radio-telescopic image of a black hole. Earth.

<I have a few ideas.>

* * *

Here, men of Earth were called.

For the salvation of a world not our own, we answered.

That all Rava could know and cherish life, in all its forms.

Ad Luna

The End.