The short trek through the tunnels was uneventful. Marcus checked the Malif nest that had given enough trouble to be wary only for him to find only hours old tracks and nothing else. He could only assume that they had moved due to the increased traffic of heavily armed men passing through their nest and it would only be prudent to move instead of being wiped out.

As for the Goblins’ outer lines, they didn’t expect a small procession of men and women along with a pair of goblins to walk through their post. Unlike the open hostility they showed whenever Marcus went through, they stayed their hand and only sent him open glares, all of which Marcus promptly ignored.

“They didn’t like you much, did they?” Anna asked as soon as they got outside of earshot.

“I didn’t really introduce myself in the friendliest manner the first time I went past their line.”

“Got into a bit of a scuffle?”

“A bit.” Marcus shrugged. Then looked ahead as the ever present candlelight lit the tunnel up ahead. “This here is the reason I said before.” Marcus said, surprised to see the turret lowered from its recess and being worked on. Marcus recognized Bo from the distance standing on a ladder and arms deep into the weapon’s internals. His pair of goblin helpers were there, looking up and holding tools for him like how children help their dads whenever they are working their cars.

“Hey! Whatcha doin’?” Marcus called as they came closer.

Startled, Bo smacked his head against the turret’s armor and grunted from the pain. Slower, he pulled his head back and looked over at Marcus’ group.

“Hey. Just thinking if I could move the turret.” Bo answered. “Happy to see you bring some backup.”

“I brought a little of something else, too. I ran them here as fast as I can.” Marcus replied, gesturing at the others. “Names are Ylenka, Anna and Rex. Everyone, this is Bo, he keeps this place running.”

“Nice to meet you all.” Bo replied and nodded. His gaze then panned over the filled packs. “That’s more than a little, and I’m sure the Chief will be happy. Since we just got attacked.”

“Seeing you here, I hope it’s already been dealt with?” Marcus asked.

“For the moment.” Bo nodded. “We had to use your explosives. In the end, they all got wiped out. The chief is both happy and worried at the same time. You being here would likely put him in better spirits.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” Marcus replied, grinning at the rifles and thousands of ammunition divided between their packs. “Then we better get going,” He said, nodding.

Not wanting to startle the rest of the station with the arrival of other humans, Marcus waved for the two goblins forward. “You two, find the chief and tell him that I’m here with the stuff, and that I brought some people with me. Go.”

Unlike the last time they left the station, the goblins are now armed with a couple of the Romy Gs taken from the haul. After taking off his holographic sight and side-rail, He had exchanged his own AK, for the both of them, which should be good enough of a trade. The two also wore brand new Alice Packs underneath their German Flecktarn ponchos which covered all of their bodies.

The two ran off to follow the orders, and Marcus watched the two. The four of them instinctively formed a circle in the hall despite it being in the middle of a relatively safe area. It allowed Marcus to have another chance to take a look at his team’s cohesion and nodded as everyone took a defensive position, even without him giving orders for them to do so. It was the main thing Marcus worried about since you can’t just mash a group of people together and expect them to work together well.

Also, being strung up tight could also have its own debilitating effect of unnecessarily tiring them all out, but it should do for now.

“That lvl 6 spider turret could take out players up well past level 30, I think.” Rex muttered for a while, “I read it up in some forum, some guy at lvl 38 complaining how OP it is getting one shotted by the turret in one of his raids.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it. Motherfucker one shotted a fully charged assault energy shield and still have some juice left to nail the guy holding it.” Marcus replied, remembering the time Columbus took a hit for him. But before he even managed to finish his thought, Marcus already knew he made a mistake. The rest had their full attention focused on him, waiting for him to tell the story.

With the words already out, Marcus couldn’t do anything about taking it back, and so told the story of how Columbus and he found the location. Marcus made sure to sterilize the details by washing over specific details and being vague whenever he can. It didn’t take away much from the telling of the story and it kept everyone occupied long enough for the chief to arrive with his entourage.

The chief approached and saw the group gathered. After giving everyone else in the party a cursory once over, he nodded, then waved them to follow him and turned to lead the way without checking if they complied. They were led straight through the market, with fewer goblins roaming around, and into the armory where a pile of gear was laid out on the table. Marcus signalled for the rest to put their packs on one of the empty tables as the chief signalled for Marcus to check the weapons out. Turning them over, Marcus could see some serious firepower gathered by the attacking men, and he was put into the position of being the station’s de facto gun expert.

Marcus picked up the MP5SD and locked the bolt back. It was clear. He looked over the bullets in the magazines expecting to see the normal ball ammunition, and was surprised to see the black tipped armor penetrators loaded in all the magazines. He then checked the tags on the side and saw the same names as the ones he had killed. If the timing was right, it meant that they had rushed to the location the moment they respawned to try to attack the station, likely trying to capitalize on their initial damage only for them to be caught unawares by the explosives.

‘Still, this could be serious.’ Marcus thought to himself as he pulled one out of the magazine and handed one to Ylenka, who should know more about the ammunition in question. if not, then it would only be another thing to further look into.

While Marcus was checking the drops of the attackers, the chief was checking out the bags and nodded at the stacks of Romy Gs along with Marcus’ lone AKM lined up on the table. “I got you some semiautomatic AK since I judged it better for your forces than the fully automatics. Still got one, though. I’ll just say it chief, don’t really think most of your forces should be equipped with the fun switches. They’re more likely to miss their targets and shoot their own than hit what they’re supposed to. If there would be any full auto need, dedicated machine guns would easily fill that gap.” Marcus said, pulling out the crates of steel cored 7.62x39mm. “As for the ammo, we got you covered for some time. Remember, chief, these are pristine ammo straight out of the can. They are worth more and much more effective and reliable than what you’re using here. We also got you some explosives and other stuff.”

“Is worth much more than first deal.” The chief said as he looked over what they brought.

Marcus could only smile. Patting the older goblin, he replied. “Don’t worry, these people right here heard about your plight and decided to help by volunteering themselves for the effort along with their hard earned credits.”

After hearing this, the chief rushed to the three and started to thank them profusely. He bowed at them, holding their hands and shaking them over his head. Marcus could only watch as surprised looks flashed between the three of them and they all looked at him with surprise.

Attention!

Relations with Chief Tiul have developed into: Close Friend!

+ 10 contribution points to songbird station.

The three were silent as the chief finished his thanks and stood on the side while Marcus finished instructing everyone present on how to use everything they brought. Done, Marcus noticed the looks everyone was sending him and signalled for the three to follow as he went towards Bo’s shop along with the two trailing goblins.

After letting everyone in, Anna suddenly squealed and jumped over Marcus’ back. Alarmed, he leaned forward and grabbed the back of her neck and pulled down, tumbling Anna off him and slamming her forwards into hard concrete, stunning her. With a smooth motion, he pressed his knee over her chest, pressed a hand over her neck and pulled out his m1911. Loaded, cocked and locked, he only needed to flick the safety off and pointed it over to Rex, who already had his hand held over his head. Ylenka was slowly backing away from the man, but still kept herself within Marcus’ sights.

‘Okay? How’d the fuck did I do that?’ he first thought to himself, then to more pressing matters. “What the fuck?” Marcus asked Anna, her face red, which he hoped was all from him choking her. “Why’d you do that for?” He asked, pulling away.

“Sorry. I just got excited!” Anna said, getting up. “We just got 5 contribution points.”

“Okay?” Marcus replied, holstering his firearm.

“That means we could exchange it for 10,000 exp each! Depending on your level, that could get you at least 3 levels!” Anna answered, “we could now power-level up to lvl 20 and get a new skill slot!”

Marcus sighed, sitting on the ground. Levels are always good for any player and any way to power-level would be easily sought after. Maybe Marcus could use this new knowledge as another bargaining chip, but that would have to be for later. “Well, I could use a free slot myself. What else is there to exchange contribution points for?”

“Depending on the level of the settlement, it could go from simple experience to a position in the organization.” Ylenka replied, “So pretty much anything, really.”

“What else could this place need? I have another hundred on the bank and I’m willing to use it.” Anna said.

Marcus shrugged. “Explosives? Claymores would be nice. Some plastic explosives, and if you could, a launcher with some grenades. But if you can get them, cheap comms shouldn’t hurt.”

Ylenka chuckled. “Don’t hold your breath for 40mm. They’re pretty much bought out whenever they show themselves in the market, and if they do, they’re too expensive for anyone outside clans to even consider.”

“Then we can get creative with the explosives, I think. Alright. Anna, it would be good if you use half of your promise in machine guns, doesn’t matter which and use the other half to buy as much ammo for them you can get, better if you stick to 7.62x39 or 54R so that they could share with what they commonly use here.”

“Got it. We’ll be leaving then.” Anna replied, waving for Rex.

“You two, go with them and backtrack to the tunnels underneath the ship. Make sure they get past the sentry line and come back here.” Marcus ordered the goblins, who nodded and went to accomplish the orders. Anna and Rex followed them out, leaving Ylenka and Marcus.

“I hope it didn’t excite you as much as she did?” Marcus asked, glancing over at Ylenka.

“Oh no.” Ylenka chuckled, “don’t expect something like that from me. Although I do need the same exp boost to catch up with the rest of my team, they should be getting the same notifications, I presume? Which reminds me, I also couldn’t contact them with the game restriction. Do you happen to know a workaround?”

“Money transfer, with each amount corresponding to a letter’s placement in the alphabet. It takes a while, but it works.” Marcus replied, “You could also just wait and call them when we get back to the surface since we’re going up top after the goblins come back anyway. We need to check up on what your boys got for us, then we’ll see then.”

“Clever.” Ylenka replied, testing the methods Marcus instructed and found out that it worked. “This will be safe with me, in case this method gets patched out. Also, Horn replied using the same method, and they said yes."

“Good.” Marcus nodded. “That’s good. Let's meet our new friends then.”