My planet is infested with Goblins

Captain Roland Mercer watched the smoke rising above Brackenford while goblin bolts continued striking the shield line around him.

The village alarm carried faintly through the forest, but it was no longer difficult to understand what it meant. Something was happening inside the settlement, and the goblins blocking Second Company’s road were not merely trying to kill his soldiers.

Their attacks came in waves that forced the company to halt, reorganize, and defend itself, yet every time Mercer prepared a counterattack the smaller creatures withdrew before returning from another direction.

The pattern finally became obvious. They were buying time, and whatever they were buying that time for was happening ahead.

One of Mercer’s lieutenants crouched behind the shield line as another volley struck the road.

"We can hold here, Captain. Give us another half hour and we can clear the woods."

Mercer looked toward the distant smoke.

"We don’t have half an hour."

The lieutenant followed his gaze.

"You think the village is already under attack?"

"I think these things did not choose this road by accident."

Mercer raised his voice so the nearby officers could hear him.

"We are breaking through."

The second lieutenant stared at him.

"Moving under fire will expose the whole column."

"Brackenford is the mission. We are not leaving them to fight alone while we spend the afternoon killing scouts in the woods."

He pointed toward the front ranks.

"Heavy shields forward. Spears behind them. Crossbows in the center. The wounded who can still move stay inside the formation. Anyone who cannot walk goes in the remaining wagon."

A quartermaster shouted from farther back.

"What about the supplies?"

"Take what we need. Leave the rest."

The quartermaster hesitated.

"That is three days of rations."

"Then the goblins can eat well tonight."

Orders moved through the company quickly. Soldiers dragged crates away from the surviving wagon to create space for wounded men. Anything that could not be carried without slowing the column was abandoned beside the burning wagon.

Spare tent poles, damaged shields, excess grain sacks, and broken equipment were left where they lay. Lieutenant Harlen Doss gathered the mounted scouts who had managed to return and moved them toward the rear of the formation.

Mercer caught his arm.

"You are not charging into the trees."

Doss nodded.

"I learned that already."

"Protect the rear. If they try to surround us, drive them off and come back. Do not chase."

Doss gave a tired grin.

"You are becoming very repetitive, Captain."

"I will stop when everyone starts listening."

Mercer moved toward the front.

"Second Company! Shields together!"

The surviving infantry tightened their formation.

"Forward!"

The line moved.

The goblins reacted immediately. Bolts struck the leading shields while arrows descended from both sides of the road.

One soldier cried out and fell with an arrow buried above his collarbone, but the men beside him closed the gap before the formation could split.

Mercer stayed just behind the first rank, sword drawn, forcing himself to look at the entire road rather than each individual attack.

"Do not chase them! Keep moving!"

The first group of goblins blocking the road rushed forward with short spears and curved blades. The Caldris soldiers met them with longer weapons.

A goblin tried to slip beneath a spear thrust and was struck across the face by the edge of a shield before another spear entered its chest.

Two more retreated instantly, disappearing toward the trees instead of allowing themselves to become trapped.

The formation advanced another ten paces.

Then smoke exploded across the road.

Several clay pots shattered against the ground and released thick gray clouds. Soldiers coughed as visibility disappeared.

"Keep moving to that direction direction!" Mercer shouted. "Do not break formation!"

A goblin appeared through the smoke directly in front of him. Mercer barely had time to turn his shoulder before the creature’s blade scraped across his breastplate.

He slammed the pommel of his sword into its face, then drove the point beneath its ribs. The goblin collapsed, but two others rushed into the gap it had created.

Spears came down from Mercer’s right.

Both attackers fell as Mercercounterattacked.

The smoke began thinning.

That was when Mercer saw the next obstacle.

A partially cut tree had been dragged across the road ahead, its branches tangled with ropes and brush. Goblins were already gathering behind it.

"They knew we would move this way," one lieutenant said.

Mercer looked at the barricade.

"These bastards are prepared."

The goblins had prepared multiple ways to slow an advancing force before Second Company ever appeared. This was not improvisation after spotting the column. The road had been chosen in advance.

"Axes forward!"

Several soldiers carrying camp axes moved toward the obstacle under shield protection.

Goblin arrows struck around them while crossbowmen returned fire. One engineer fell with a bolt in his thigh, but the others kept cutting branches.

Mercer watched the goblins beyond the barricade. They were not throwing themselves forward blindly. Small groups rushed only when the Caldris soldiers became disorganized, then pulled back before the longer weapons could trap them.

"They’re delaying us," Mercer said.

His lieutenant looked toward him.

"What?"

"They don’t need to beat us. They only need to keep us here."

The distant bell continued ringing.

Mercer pointed toward the barricade.

"Clear it faster!"

The front soldiers eventually forced enough space through the branches for the shield line to squeeze past. The moment they did, the largest goblin group attacked.

Dozens surged from both sides of the road.

The fight collapsed into close quarters.

Caldris shields smashed smaller bodies aside while goblins attacked exposed legs and arms.

One goblin jumped onto a fallen trunk and launched itself over the shield line, landing against a soldier’s chest before stabbing wildly toward his neck.

The soldier fell backward with the creature on top of him until Mercer’s lieutenant drove a sword through the goblin’s back.

Another crawled beneath the lowered spears and struck a soldier behind the knee. The man dropped, and three goblins immediately tried to drag him away from the formation.

Mercer rushed forward with two others and cut one down.

"Pull him back!"

The wounded soldier was dragged into the center.

The Caldris formation kept moving.

Slowly, brutally, the larger soldiers forced the goblins away from the road. Every few steps cost blood, but their weight and reach were beginning to matter. Once the goblins lost the advantage of striking from concealment, they struggled to stop an entire shield line moving together.

Tomas suddenly appeared beside Mercer.

"Captain!"

"What?"

"There’s a farm road ahead. West side."

Mercer saw the narrow track branching between two hedgerows.

"That leads to Brackenford?"

"Straight toward the western gate. The main road bends south before coming back."

Mercer studied the track. It was narrower and more exposed to trees on either side.

"How much time?"

"Maybe half."

That was enough.

"Turn the column!"

The lieutenant nearest him stared.

"Into that?"

"Unless you know a faster road."

The formation shifted toward the farm track. The remaining wagon barely fit between the hedges, but the soldiers managed to force it through. The goblins reacted almost immediately, moving through the forest parallel to them.

Arrows continued falling from the trees.

Mercer ordered the crossbowmen to conserve ammunition.

"Only fire at clear targets. Stop shooting at shadows."

Doss’s mounted scouts fought constantly at the rear, driving back goblins who tried to close on the slower wounded. Horses were becoming more liability than advantage in the narrow terrain, but their speed still helped when the road opened briefly.

A soldier near the rear was struck by a bolt and collapsed.

Two men stopped.

Mercer saw it.

"Leave him!"

One of them looked horrified.

"He might still be alive!"

Mercer looked once toward the fallen man. The bolt had entered below the ear.

"He’s gone. Move!"

They obeyed.

Mercer turned away before he could look again. There was no time for proper burial, no time to recover every body, and no time to pretend otherwise.

The bell ahead became louder.

Then they began hearing other sounds.

Men Shouting.

Wood breaking.

The distant clash of weapons.

Tomas slowed his horse.

"That’s inside the village."

Gareth looked toward the smoke.

"There are two columns now."

Mercer saw them as well. One came from outside the eastern side of Brackenford. The other rose from somewhere behind the palisade.

The village was already fighting.

"Faster!" Mercer shouted.

The forest began thinning.

Fields appeared ahead.

Then Brackenford came into view.

Mercer had expected a threatened village.

What he saw was a battlefield.

Goblins crowded around the eastern and southern sections of the wooden palisade. Some fired bows and compact crossbows from the fields while others carried crude ladders toward the wall. Several buildings outside the defenses were burning. Smoke rose from within the village where at least one roof had caught fire.

Brackenford’s defenders were still fighting. Guards and armed villagers stood along the palisade, throwing stones, firing bows, and stabbing downward with spears whenever goblins reached the top.

Tomas stared ahead.

"We’re too late."

Mercer shook his head.

"They’re still alive."

A group of goblins near the western fields noticed Second Company.

Signals spread quickly.

Several attackers turned away from the village and began moving toward the approaching soldiers.

Mercer immediately understood the opportunity and the danger. Brackenford’s defenders were holding the walls from inside, while Second Company was now approaching the attackers from behind. If they reached the gate in good order, the goblins around the village could find themselves trapped between two Caldris forces.

But Second Company was exhausted, bloodied, and already missing men.

Mercer raised his sword.

"Stay together! We are going through the western gate!"

On the palisade, someone spotted them.

A voice carried faintly across the fields.

"Eastwatch!"

The western gate began opening.

Tomas almost laughed from relief.

Then he saw goblins moving toward it.

"They’re trying to cut us off!"

Mercer saw them too.

A large group was abandoning the southern wall and rushing toward the western entrance before Second Company could reach it.

"Crossbows!"

The Caldris ranged troops stopped long enough to fire.

Several goblins fell.

Others kept coming.

Brackenford’s defenders began shooting from the walls as well, bolts and arrows passing above Mercer’s advancing infantry.

"Charge!"

This time Mercer allowed the formation to break into a faster advance.

The shield troops ran toward the gate while spearmen followed. Doss and the remaining mounted scouts moved along the outer flank, intercepting goblins attempting to reach the road.

The final approach became a chaotic collision of exhausted soldiers and aggressive attackers. Mercer cut down one goblin near the gate and shoved another aside with his shield. Tomas rode through first, followed by Gareth and several wounded men.

The surviving wagon entered next.

Mercer stayed outside.

"Keep moving!"

His lieutenant grabbed his shoulder.

"Captain, inside!"

"Not until the rear is here."

Doss appeared through the smoke with the last mounted scouts, goblins following behind them across the field.

Caldris crossbows fired from the palisade.

Doss’s horse nearly stumbled as he reached the gate, but the lieutenant recovered and rode through.

Mercer backed inside with the final infantry.

"Close it!"

The wooden doors slammed together.

For the first time since the ambush began, Second Company had walls around it.

Mercer barely had time to breathe.

The village interior was worse than he expected. Wounded civilians lay beside houses. Guards carried buckets toward a burning roof. Villagers moved ammunition toward the walls while terrified children were hurried into cellars.

Captain Edric Vane pushed through the confusion toward him, blood covering one sleeve.

Mercer looked around.

"How many are attacking?"

Edric shook his head.

"Ten, a hundred, a thousand, I stopped counting."

A tremendous crash came from the eastern side of Brackenford.

Both men turned.

Someone on the wall screamed over the noise.

"The eastern gate is breached!"

Mercer tightened his grip on his sword. Second Company had escaped the forest and reached the village, but the battle they had fought to reach was already tearing Brackenford apart.

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