At investigation point Alpha, Mateo's team and the marines were fully prepared to engage the newest wave of goblins. The goblins were taking a suspiciously long time to leave the portal.
Tony was positioned on the right side of the LATV. Fed up with waiting, he complained out loud.
"What are these damn goblins doing? Mateo, can't we go after them? It'd be a hell of a lot easier to take them all out."
"Negative. There are so many issues with going through the portal ourselves. The drone's relayed orders says to stay here and eliminate every goblin that leaves the portal."
"Then what about getting some backup? Just anything so we don't have to sit here doing nothing." Tony was irritated at having to work in the mud.
"We're not getting any. I've already said that. All available military personnel are preparing to handle the other forming portals."
"But they don't activate for hours," he whined. "Can't we get a little help now?"
"Shut it, Tony!" Mateo was fed up with his complaints. If the two weren't good friends, Mateo would've requested a replacement ages ago. "We're doing this with what we have. Now eyes on the target. I don't want surprises."
Tony shut up after that. It only lasted a few seconds, though.
"But I'm so bored! Oh! Let me go checkout the goblin and boar corpses. Someone needs to do it eventually, and it'd be better to do it before more fighting destroys them. Please, Mateo?"
Mateo found himself gagging at the horribly disturbing puppy dog eyes Tony was trying to use. This wasn't the first time Tony had acted so pathetically because he was bored.
"…Fine, Tony. Just get out of here. I get chills every time you do that."
"Awe thanks, but you know I don't swing that way…" he mocked while running towards the goblin corpses.
"THE WRONG CHILLS," Mateo yelled after him. "You little shit," he said to himself. Ralph had to stop himself from laughing in the LATV. It wouldn't be good for him if Mateo turned his anger onto him.
It only took Tony a few seconds to run the distance to the piles of goblin corpses. The piles of corpses were an extremely gruesome sight. If they were human corpses, the soldiers would not be nearly as unaffected as they currently are.
The marines had only setup a little more than 300 feet away. When Tony arrived, the first thing he noticed was the smell. His helmet's advanced air filtering and private oxygen canister was unable to fight off the horrid stench that wafted from the goblins.
The stench was so bad it distracted him from realizing what was going on. Since the ecological collapse, the atmosphere has been completely contaminated. The only places that one could breath was in the cities.
The rebreathers that everyone wore almost all the time switched to filtering air when it detected a breathable atmosphere. This was to conserve the oxygen in their air canisters. If the suit was filtering air, then that meant the air was breathable around the portal.
Mateo's special forces squad had more advanced armor and equipment. Their helmets actually refilled their canisters with more air when possible. The standard marine armor only stopped using the canister's air.
The fact that the air around the portal was breathable, ignoring the stench, was a ground breaking discovery. Tony realized he had to get this info to Mateo immediately. He turned and sprinted the distance back to the LATV to report.
"Hey, you're not ganna believe this!" Tony said excitedly.
"What the hell was that Tony? You fart in your suit again?"
"No. I wish it was that simple," Tony said with a chuckle.
"So?" Mateo asked. Realizing Tony got distracted.
"Right! The air around the portal is breathable."
"Wait, what? Hang on. Actually, that makes sense. The goblins weren't wearing gas masks. I didn't even realize that they shouldn't have been able to breath. Stay here. I'm getting Olivia, and we're going to go check it out," Mateo ordered before running off towards Olivia's position.
It was only a minute more before the two came running back. Mateo, Olivia and Tony all looked at each other before nodding. Seeing that everyone was ready, the three of them turned and jogged towards the portal.
Once the trio reached the goblin corpses, the nauseating smell entered through their suit's air filtration system. It was confirmation that there was, in fact, breathable air around the portal, even if only barely. The trio stopped abruptly due to the revolting smell.
"This air might have oxygen, but it's more rotten than Ralph's socks after his morning workout!" Tony said in exasperation. His second time smelling it allowed him to adjust a little faster than the others.
"What is wrong with these goblins?" Olivia asked in absolute disgust.
"I have no idea, but I'd bet that our chances of safely eating those boars are zero. There's no way that they're not coated in bacteria," Mateo answered. He was extremely disappointed his chances of eating meat were gone.
"Speaking of, can we detect any foreign bacteria on the goblins? We cannot afford to spread an unknown goblin plague," Olivia warned.
An incurable epidemic would likely wipe out a large portion of the Western Nation. Medical care facilities were essentially reduced to slightly warmer beds stocked with the simplest bandages. Unfortunately, the planet couldn't support the manufacturing of most medical equipment and consumables.
Most people born prior to the ecological collapse received genetic enhancements. This prevented them from falling ill to the most common diseases due to an improved immune system. Any disease that was cureable or preventable were almost entirely eliminated, too. The trio could only hope their improved immune systems could fight whatever diseases the goblins carried.
The trio were so focused on analyzing and discussing the goblins, boars and breathable air that they failed to notice more hostiles exit the portal. Usually, their helmets would have a proximity movement scanner. However, due to the interference from the portal, it was no longer functional.
They didn't even notice a boar was charging straight at them until they heard gunpowder shots fired from the marines team. When they turned to engage the enemy, they noticed it had already been dealt with.
It was a boar with two goblins strapped to each side carrying a makeshift wooden shield. On the back of the boar rode a slightly taller goblin which wielded a wooden spear. The boar also had some wood attached to its head to act as armor.
The burst of shots came from Ralph. He was manning the .50 cal powder-based machine gun on the LATV. The power of the weapon was so high that the goblin spearman was blown off the boar in several pieces.
The boar was shot in the head through the light wooden armor. The boar's head was blown apart with fragments of bone and brain matter splattering the ground. It immediately went limp and crashed into the ground, sliding to a fault only a few feet away from the marine trio.
Mateo, Olivia and Tony approached and eliminated the four shield carriers. It was easy for them since the goblins were strapped down and couldn't move. A large puddle of blood formed beneath the boar's body as the blood from the four goblins and the boar accumulated.
The trio realized they had been reckless in their investigation. They should have been paying attention to their surroundings. The calm and quiet between waves of goblins had messed with their already strained nerves.
Now the three of them were right next to the portal with goblin cavalry charging through. The three turned to run back towards the emplacements for safety. Right then, three fully armed boars came charging out of the portal.
Two of the boars carried spearmen atop them. The final boar carried a new, strange goblin. This goblin wore purple rags instead of the animal fur cloth and carried a strange piece of wood with a bright red crystal at the end.
The strange goblin spoke in the goblin'a strange language. After a few words, an unsettling feeling settled over the three marines.
It was the same strange energy that made all the hair on their bodies stand up before. While running they turned their heads to get a look at the weird goblin.
In front of the staff which the goblin pointed at them, they witnessed a small ball of fire form in midair. The fire flew out in wisps from a single point before forming a sphere. The fire started as a deep red color before gradually shifting towards a orange-yellow color. It looked strikingly similar to the sun.
Once the ball of fire reached the size of a basketball, the goblin made another noise, and the fire flew straight towards them.
Specifically, it flew towards Olivia who happened to be running in the middle. The humans were only a few dozen feet away and had little time to react. The fire ball flew at a blistering speed towards Olivia's unguarded back.
Calculating the trajectory of the fireball, Mateo's heart began to burn in desperation. He couldn't allow his wife to get hit. He only had a few moments before the rapidly approaching fireball landed.
He did the only thing he could. He rammed his shoulder into her side, and by consequence, pushed her into Tony on the other side. The collision resulted in everyone falling hard on the ground.
BOOOM!
"AAAAAHHHH!" The fireball hit Mateo square in the side with a small explosion.
"You big oaf! Why'd you do that? I was going to duck under at the last minute!" Olivia knew what had happened immediately. She quickly got to her feet to apply first aid to Mateo.
"We both know you weren't going to make it in time. Cough! Cough!"
TUT TUT TUT.
"Your lovey dovey time can wait till later. Can we please deal with the wizard first?" Tony complained after firing a burst at the fire throwing goblin. Supporting fire came from the marines, too, to take out the boar and its shields.
Under the concentrated fire the threat was immediately cleared. However, in that time two more waves of boars came charging out of the portal. Now there were 6 armored boars with 4 spearmen and two mages.
"We need to get back to the vehicles, now!" Mateo ordered. The three got up and continued their run to the vehicles. One more fireball was launched at them, but they were far enough away that they could dodge it.
The fire throwing goblins were the top priority targets for the marines. They were taken out with extreme prejudice for hurting their commanding officer. When the marines eventually switched targets, the goblin mages looked like Swiss cheese.
Once the trio made it back to the vehicles, Olivia immediately checked out Mateo's wound. They could only apply basic first aid since no medics were sent out for this operation. Nobody besides Gabe thought they were necessary, and even Gabe could only force his way so much.
Luckily for Mateo, he was only burned on his right side. The armor the marines wore was comprised of several layers. The innermost layer was an absorbing skintight material that collected the marines sweat and prevented blisters. The next layer was a skintight fabric insulating layer to help with the extreme hots and colds of the post ecological collapse.
The third layer was composed of armor plates and the straps that held them together. This is where most of the protection of the armor came from. The plates only covered the chest, back and quads and were made from a metallic particulate infused Kevlar. The final layer was a general camo pattern for visual effect and had pockets and straps for holding all of the marine's gear.
The fireball that hit Mateo burned through the camo and insulating fabric layers. Thankfully, it ran out of energy before it could burn through the innermost layer. Even missing the plates, the armor the marines wore had protections in place to save lives. Resistance to fire being chief among them.
It's a good thing the Western Nation invested in defense as much as offense. They were going to need every little bit of help they could get.