"We have a fire drill today! WAKE UP!" Vel shouted from the top of his lungs to wake the other goblins from their sleep. "Five minutes for a shower, then we go to grab some grub from the field kitchen!" He shouted again. "Now move your arse!" Vel finally grabbed his pair of flip-flops and walked towards the field shower.
One of the things that the new guardian weapon introduced was also the concept of time. Like, a really accurate concept of time in the form of seconds, minutes, and hours. It certainly made time management easier.
Vel wore one of the digital Casio wristwatches that Franzen gave to him so he could manage his squad's time management. Usually, before the concept of time became this precise, he only received orders like, "Go when the sun is up!" or something like that.
The other four goblins followed him from behind. They walked across the courtyard, into the portable showed tent that the denizens set up alongside Lyka. Let's say, the hygiene standard suddenly went up after that.
Usually, Vel only cleaned himself every time he noticed a river, and that was it. However, now, showers became an everyday necessity somehow. Goblin was well-known for their unpleasant smell, especially wild or tribal goblins. They rarely cleaned themselves.
Five goblins took showed inside the tent. The little green figures cleaned their green bodies with soap and water, something that only came recently. Lyka and the denizens enforced it to the core, with the others following suit.
Jaran wiped the soap around his hand, "Hey, Vel, what do you think of some of these new contraptions?"
Vel replied, "It's nice, but I am still not used to it yet. Like, the denizens are cooking actual meal now, not throw-it-all into the pot meal." He cleaned his hair with the water and turned off the shower. He walked out of the shower and wiped his body with a towel before getting out of the tent.
"Hahahaha, yeah," Jaran laughed as he got out of the shower, followed by the three other goblins. Vel wore his underwear, then his usual OCP military uniform before finally getting out of the shower, albeit in his flip-flop.
After that, they headed for their tents and changed for their combat boots and grabbed their M4A1, and carried it on their backs. The field kitchen was in the south corner of the camp, so they headed there. In the field kitchen, multiple denizens were cooking using some sort of new stove powered by using a gas tank.
"What's for today?" Vel asked as he grabbed a metal tray for serving.
"Mashed potato, roasted veggies, and meat," the wolf denizen answered.
"Nice," Vel smiled as he put his tray on the tray deck and the wolf girl put the food on his tray. Vel then walked away to eat the food on the ground. Last night, the fireplace where they were meeting hadn't been cleaned yet. Still, it was the usual bonfire spot.
The other goblins gathered around him with their pantries. One of the coolest things, that he never thought would appreciate was the food. Like, seriously, it became scary at this point. Especially those foods inside the carton container. Of course, for now, Vel only refilled his water canteen with water.
"Vel, where are we going to have a live fire drill?" Jaran asked.
"Somewhere near here, but definitely not in the fortress, probably around the forest," Vel said as he put a spoonful of food inside his mouth. It was good, like, the usual thing that he spent eating was hard biscuits that were made probably from rocks.
After finishing the meal, they headed back to the tent, got geared up, and formed a line in the middle of the fortress while waiting for Franzen to come out of his tent. He couldn't wait to see what the commander had in mind for them.
■■■
"Attention!"
Everyone formed a line, with their M4A1 in their hands, loaded with 5.56x45 mm ammunition. They wore their combat helmets, using their IOTV Gen 4 on their body with their magazines filled with bullets as well for the live fire training.
"Today, you'll have your first fire drill, I have high hopes that you'll perform as expected, do you understand?" Franzen said.
"Sir, yes, sir!" Vel and the other goblins shouted back.
"We'll have the shooting practice outside of the fortress, in an opening in the forest, Corporal Lyka would drive you there, alongside giving you instruction about it," Franzen said, and Lyka walked to the position and eventually stood right next to Franzen.
"I'm Corporal Lyka, and I'll teach you how to shoot the M4A1, follow me," she said.
Vel and the rest of the goblins followed Lyka from behind. The ogres opened the heavy wooden door of the fort for them and they walked out of the fort, finally seeing the world outside of the fort. It had been two weeks ever since he stepped outside the fort.
The sound of birds chirping, the smell of green leaves, and the lack of danger gave a sense of calmness to Vel. Still, he had known the nooks and crannies of this forest, and how the human would attack the fortress with their overwhelming firepower from the air and the ground.
They walked on the dirt road, led by Lyka, and Lyka was followed by goblins. Even though Lyka was a female wolf denizen, she was the tallest among them all. Her cat ears twitched every time the wind blew.
"Lyka, can you tell me what did you find at the dragon's lair?" Vel asked.
"It's Corporal Vel to you, Private Vel," Lyka said.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Vel said.
"Just kidding, we're too small anyway to erect a formal chain of command," Lyka giggled. "Basically, a bunch of other weapons that the three of us wouldn't be able to carry alone, and we think that bringing you guys without any familiarity with the tools beforehand would risk breaking them down."
"What kind of tools that you guys found?" Jaran asked.
"A lot of tools, APC, IFV, MBT, and other weapons and gadgets, but we brought the equipment you guys least likely to break down," Lyka said. "So, helmets, armors, optics, and some logistical things on the side, such as the shower and the stove."
"APC? IFV? MBT?" Vel didn't know what those terms stood for, mainly because he had never heard of them in the first place. However, he took it that it was a powerful weapon that would help him to fight those humans in the first place.
"Armored Personnel Carrier, Infantry Fighting Vehicle, and Main Battle Tank," Lyka explained. "Basically, the vehicle is like a truck, but more armored."
"More armored than the front carriage that we were shooting at?" Vel glared at Lyka, not believing that there was something much more armored than the vehicle that he shot with magical spells.
"You know, the vehicle that you are shooting at is lightly armored," Lyka said. "It was the least armored vehicle."
"Least armored???" Vel held his head in confusion. Something like that was lightly armored? What was the kind of heavy armor that the dragon guardian possessed if the vehicle that his lord brought was the light armored variant?
"Yeah, it's like very basic, really. Still, we bought as many weapons as we can to deal with the attack from the humans, like heavy machine guns, grenade machine guns, etcetera," Lyka opened her palm while explaining.
They took a left turn, heading inside the forest. Vel stepped on the almost muddy ground of the forest, courtesy of the rain six days ago. He noticed that his clothing almost blended in color with the forest, which was amazing.
Usually, the best way for goblins to hide was just to be naked since their whole body was green. However, this was better, since a goblin didn't have brown color to blend in with the dirt. Eventually, they arrived at an opening.
It was a fairly large opening, probably stretching from one side to another with at the far side as small as Vel's fingertips. A bunch of white human-like targets was erected in the field, alongside with bunch of boards with range marking 300 meters. Black circles were in the middle of the scarecrow-like targets.
For Vel, who had held a bow and crossbow his entire life, that was crazy, like, an ordinary crossbow that he used only had a range of 10-30 meters at most, especially since it was designed for goblin usage. Now, 300 meters were simply nuts. However, he believed on his M4A1 was capable of doing more than that.
"Listen up, since you have been trained for safety weapon drills and weapon usage, I expect all of your holes to align on the target in the middle. Wear your ear protection and take your position!" Lyka shouted.
Every goblin formed a line, with one target each in front of them. They aimed their rifles at the target, but their safeties were still on. Vel put his eyes on the scope of the rifle, aiming it using the reticle on his ACOG sight.
"Let's get you used to the rifle first! Once I say safety's off, fire one bullet, understand?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Vel and the other goblins shouted.
"Safety's off!" Lyka shouted.
Vel flicked the safety to semi-auto, rested his finger on the trigger, and pulled it.
BANG!
Vel released his hand from the trigger and put the safety back on. He glared at the rifle, after hearing the almost deafening noise he had ever heard even with the ear protection. The recoil of the rifle was not even comparable to the crossbow, it pushed his shoulder to the back easily. However, it was still manageable.
Vel even commented, "Bless thy weapon, my lord!"
A goblin looked at his rifle, "BLOODY ALMIGHTY!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING?" Jaran commented as he grinned very widely at his M4A1.
"BLESS THY HEAVENLY SKIES!" A goblin looked at the sky while holding the rifle in his hands.
Lyka just smiled and giggled when seeing how the goblins reacted to that weapon. Truth be told since every single one of them had experience with a bow or crossbow, it couldn't be taken lightly that this weapon was more than revolutionary. Vel thought to himself. This would certainly bring a change to the war.