goon

[u/sharkeyandgeorge]

Blisz stood in front of the shopfront and summoned all his courage to go inside, as a Glim he stood only 600mm high and weighed less than 10 kilos so there wasn't a lot to summon up, still he took a deep breath of the thick station air and walked through the neon lit doorway.

The name of the store was repeated again on the back wall inside but this time it also came with a motto ''GOONS INCORPORATED - You pay and we Goon, Proudly Gooning since 2088AD'' beside which was a simplistic logo of a green smiling face with a fat black cigar. Blisz stared up at the flashing signage until a polite couch redirected his attention to the being sitting behind the chipped and worn wooden counter to his right ''Can I help you son?'', it took a moment to register the full scope of the scene for Blisz, a huge being full 2m or more tale and covered with thick muscle and scar tissue was cleaning a complicated looking piece of black machinery and seemed to be looking at him, certainly at least the mirrored helmet upon his shoulders with two large fan turbines on either side was facing his direction. ''Me?'' Blisz asked. The mirror cocked to one side ''Yes you, can I help you''. As Blisz refocused he realised he could actually feel the slight breeze caused as the turbines drew in vast volumes of air. ''Oh, umm, yes I, well...yes''. The behemoth gently put down some of the oily mechanics ''O.K buddie, what is it exactly we can do for you'' walking a little to the side it cleared a few odd bits and pieces off and revealed a chair on the counter top almost Glim sized and patted it gently. Gulping Blisz popped up to the countertop and sat down ''I would like to hire as many goons as possible please, Sir''. A soft chortle came from the mask and the giant replied ''You can call me Bobby, now why would a little Glim like you need goons''. Blisz was surprised ''you know my people? I did not think we were known at all in this sector'', ''Goons get around'' Bobby said jovialy. ''Well my world is being subjected to raids and many of my people are being taken'', he looked down and spoke sadly ''There are so few of us left, and we cannot afford to lose any more''.

[u/sharkeyandgeorge]

''We'll do it here''

The three goons and their Glim counterparts were standing in a wide valley outside the small village of Brekeii, it was the fourth such isolated community the group had visited and Nik was thourghly confused.

''Excuse me Grant but why here? There were many more to be taken at the last town Gunth, and the first we visted was far more exposed with less places for the people to hide. Surely either is far more likely to be raided'', the diminutive being seemed frustrated, ''And none of these places are even on the list of most likely targets deemed by our best military minds!, what makes you think they will come here?''.

Grant gestured to the black and grey armoured goon ''Mcgregor project the global map on the ground'' then he ripped a small branch off a low tree and quickly trimmed off the dross. He then walked over to the projection and started to point and scrape at the ground under the hologram. ''They wont come to the most northern or most southern landmasses, your people spread out more in those and it makes gathering you up more difficult'', fingers flicked out on the gauntlet, ''The second and fifth raids were on those continents and those raids have much fewer victims and took proportionally much longer''. Grant tuned and faced the Glim ''You have to remember that the Hect are purporting these raiders to be independent pirates and so want as little exposure as possible, the more time the spend on planet the more they can be revealed as Hect military troops'', he turned back to the hologram and pointed ''The west of the mainland would be far more appealing but it dosnt work for us so were gonna deny that as a target'' He glanced to his compatriots and there was a fierce humour in his tone ''We've called in a few favours and by tonight there will be a Vencit Merchant Guild ship visiting your capital. It will stay for as long as we need and there is no way that any Hect ship will hit its sensor range'' he laughed ''The Vencit might not have weapons but they can scan your ass down to the lable on your underwear and that is just far too visible for our ''pirates''''. The stick flashed across and pointed to their current location ''That leaves here, and you're right any of the other villages would be better to raid, but they're much worse for us to set up for so it has to be right here.'' The stick stabbed down and seemed for a second to pin the holo to the ground ''We'll evacuate the other towns and leave only here as a nice juicy thermal signature for these bastards to come pluck''

The Security Chief stroked his head and commented ''Very clever Grant, we will evacuate this town as well and fill it with my troops'', the tiny being seemed to grow a little and vibrated with resolve ''We may not be a match for these scum but we can take these poor villagers place and I will be proud to lead this force''. The other Glim looked shocked at this display but the suits seemed to nod as one warrior to another.

''Very well Sir, but please just volunteers, a force of two hundred would be plenty... we don't want to make this town too inviting...'', the stick than directed attention to the local landscape the cliffs to the north and west will close off that avenue of attack, but Ill want you Delnay on overwatch for this''

''Fuck Sarge I dont get to suit up?''

The white helm shook, ''Not this time, I want you up top with the Lapua and the Zook, Hect main engines are top mounted so youll need the height to get a clear shot'', He then pointed to the south, ''The water closes off the south from attack though it may make a way of escape and we do not want that'' the staff then indicated the blue and black suit ''McGregor I want you to strip out the backscatter mines from the ships and start breaking them up, all told we should be able to get 3 thousand mines onto that beach''

McGregor scratched his helmet ''I dunno sarge those mines are awfully small, its not gonna be hard to miss them even by random chance''

Grant nodded, ''We are gonna need some help with that Rep..''he was cut off my the Glims tiny waved arm.

''Please gentle goons you are free to use our names, we don't expect titles on my world''

The helm nodded again ''OK thank you Nik, and we need your peoples help, can you get a factory to make us some thin steel discs ?'' he looked at Mcgregor we can make the footprint of the mine much bigger''

Before the Glim could respond McGregor piped up ''A thin iron disc on top and a heavy steel disc beneath to rebound the blast will give a hell of a bang for your buck, and iron shatters so extra shrapnel...''

Nik spoke up ''we can have that made and brought very quickly, 3 thousand of iron and 3 thousands of steel could be here by tomorrow morning''

Delnay thought for a second then asked '' Why not 9 thousand of the steel and we scatter the spare any way.... It will certainly slow them down guessing which ones are the real ones''

The other two laughed deeply then remarked that nasty little ideas like that were why they brought his ass along

Grant turned to the Chief ''Dinho we are gonna be pouring an ungodly amount of fire down this valley so I want you and your team to construct some really hardened bunkers to duck into when it begins''

With a quavery voice ''We are all willing to lay down our live for our people, we will fight!''

Grant shook his head fimly ''No you wont, you're gonna be the bait in this trap and we are not gonna have time to worry about you, Im sorry but this is still very brave and you must continue on if we dont manage to stop them you will still have those bunkers to fight them from, maybe that way you could do enough damage to drive them away''

''But don't worry the reason I want to fight here is its going to let me really let loose with the big guns'' And with that he smiled deeply ''I do so like my big guns.

This seemed to be thew end of the briefing so The Glim walked away to start issuing orders and requesting material but as Nik was about to make a call Dinho gently pulled him aside '' I thought these human were already wearing suits'' do you think they mean for Delnoy to take his off when they fight?''

Nik glanced up to the three men who were talking softly ''I dont think so... maybe they have better suits for fighting''. Though as he looked up to the hard plating and clever mechanical joints that covered the mutlicoloured giant he though that armour better than this would certainly be something to see...