My planet is infested with Goblins

Grand Marshal Rakhar Veyr stood over the largest map Viridian had managed to produce since entering Edras, though calling it complete would have been generous.

The sheet covered most of the command table inside the forward headquarters near the portal, its western half filled with uncertain lines and empty spaces while the eastern regions had gradually become dense with markings.

Roads discovered by scouts were drawn in black. Rivers and streams were added in blue ink. Small circles represented villages, while different military symbols indicated patrol encounters, ambushes, fortified structures, bridges, and locations where enemy movement had been observed.

Every returning scouting party brought another piece of information, and every captured document gave Viridian’s scribes something else to compare against what they had already seen with their own eyes. Three thousand years of warfare had taught Viridian that an incomplete map was still more useful than confident ignorance.

Several senior officers stood around the table while messengers continued moving in and out of the headquarters. The meeting had been called after enough reports arrived to give Rakhar a proper picture of the campaign’s opening days.

Until now, his forces had moved in fragments across the countryside, testing roads, watching settlements, striking patrols, and determining how quickly the humans responded when threatened. Brackenford had been the largest engagement so far, and its capture had already created consequences beyond the value of the village itself.

Colonel Varek, the officer responsible for consolidating the reports from the Brackenford operation, placed a written record on the table.

"The settlement is fully secured, Grand Marshal. No organized resistance remains. The surviving fires have been contained, and the eastern palisade is being repaired."

Rakhar looked toward the mark representing Brackenford.

"Professional soldiers reached it before the final assault?"

"Yes. More than one hundred based on recovered equipment, bodies, and unit markings. They were better equipped than the local defenders and maintained formation even after entering the village."

Rakhar’s expression remained neutral.

"So the first encounter forced them to reinforce the settlement."

"That is our assessment."

The seven scouts who first encountered Caldris soldiers had paid heavily for that discovery, but their fight had exposed more than the existence of one village. The survivors had returned with evidence that the humans could respond quickly once they understood a threat existed.

More importantly, the professional soldiers sent toward Brackenford had revealed how Caldris moved reinforcements through the region.

Rakhar tapped the road leading west from the village.

"They came along this route?"

Varek nodded.

"Our forces observed them before the ambush. Infantry, mounted scouts, and supply wagons. The original intent was to delay them until the attack on Brackenford was already underway."

"Not destroy them?"

"No. The ambush force believed killing the column was possible, but delay remained the priority."

Another officer glanced toward Rakhar.

"The humans chose to force their way through instead of establishing a defensive position."

Rakhar looked toward him.

"They knew the village was under attack?"

"Smoke was visible, and we believe they could hear the alarm bells ringing."

That interested Rakhar more than the tactical details of the fighting.

"They accepted additional casualties to reach the settlement."

"Yes."

Rakhar considered the implication. Caldris officers might be willing to risk professional troops to protect population centers under attack, even when the safer decision would be to stop and destroy an ambushing force first.

That did not mean every commander would behave the same way, but it was useful information.

He turned back toward Varek.

"What about our losses?"

The colonel opened another record.

"Combined losses from the road ambush and the capture of Brackenford currently stand at sixty-three dead and ninety-one wounded. Several of the wounded should return to service after treatment."

A few younger officers exchanged satisfied looks. They had destroyed the reinforcing company, killed the local defenders, and captured an entire settlement while losing fewer than seventy soldiers.

Rakhar noticed the expressions.

"We lost sixty-three soldiers taking a village."

The room quieted.

One officer answered carefully.

"The enemy had more than a hundred professional troops in addition to the local defenders."

"That makes the result acceptable. It does not make the losses irrelevant."

Rakhar placed one hand against the edge of the table.

"If we spend sixty soldiers for every collection of wooden houses we encounter, we will run out of soldiers long before we run out of villages."

Nobody argued this point

Rakhar had never cared much for commanders who measured success only by whether they still possessed the battlefield afterward.

Viridian’s objective was not to collect ruined settlements as trophies. Noah had commanded them to break the eastern resistance of an entire kingdom. Every battle had to contribute to that purpose.

"What did we learn from their soldiers?"

Varek gestured toward another officer responsible for battlefield analysis.

The goblin opened a leather folder.

"The humans are significantly larger than us on average. Their reach is the most immediate difficulty. Long spears become dangerous when they maintain formation, and their shields are large enough to create effective barriers in narrow streets or roads."

Rakhar nodded.

"We already knew they were larger."

"We had not fought a professional formation before Brackenford."

The officer continued.

"Their armor is heavier, though not particularly advanced. Their strength makes frontal shield fighting unfavorable for us unless we have a numerical advantage or disrupt their formation first. They performed much worse once forced into broken terrain, narrow side streets, or attacks from several directions."

Another marker was placed near the road ambush.

"The forest engagement confirmed the same thing. Their formation was difficult to break while they remained together, but they could not move quickly without abandoning that protection. Targeting horses, wagons, and officers slowed them more effectively than attempting to overwhelm the front."

Rakhar approved of the conclusion.

"What about their morale?"

"They did not break easily. The professional troops continued advancing after taking casualties. Even inside Brackenford, they retreated in organized groups until their numbers became too low."

"That goes into every combat briefing from now on."

The officer bowed his head.

"Yes, Grand Marshal."

Rakhar looked around the table.

"Do not tell the soldiers that these people are primitive and therefore easy to kill. Their cities may be behind ours. Their bodies are not. A human spear through the chest is still a spear through the chest."

The officers recorded the instruction.

The next report came from the Reclamation Corps.

Quartermaster-Captain Nerek entered carrying three bound ledgers rather than samples of captured equipment. That alone pleased Rakhar. A lesser army might have brought him a ceremonial sword or chest of coins as proof of victory. Viridian wanted records.

Nerek placed the ledgers on the table.

"Brackenford’s recovery is nearly complete. All major military, economic, and written materials have been catalogued."

Rakhar opened the first book.

"How much usable food?"

"Enough grain and preserved supplies to support the current local garrison for several weeks without drawing heavily from the portal route. We also recovered livestock, tools, wagons, and several intact storage buildings."

"Weapons?"

"Swords, spears, crossbows, shields, armor, and smaller quantities of bows. Most are inferior to Viridian equipment, but samples have been separated for study."

"And valuables?"

"Coins, worked metal, personal valuables, temple objects, and merchant goods. Everything has been sealed and recorded."

Nerek opened the second ledger.

"The written materials may ultimately be more important. We recovered village records, tax documents, maps, merchant accounts, religious texts, personal letters, and military papers taken from the professional soldiers."

Rakhar looked toward him.

"None destroyed?"

"Not intentionally. A portion was lost in fires before the Reclamation teams entered."

That was unavoidable.

The Reclamation Corps existed precisely because Viridian had learned over centuries that soldiers could destroy the value of conquest almost as quickly as the enemy could. After a battle, ordinary troops wanted food, coins, weapons, alcohol, jewelry, or anything else worth carrying. Left uncontrolled, thousands of soldiers could strip a settlement without recording what had been taken, ruin useful stores, fight among themselves over valuables, or burn buildings that might later become military assets. Viridian had turned plunder into an organized part of warfare.

Combat units secured territory. The Reclamation Corps entered afterward.

Its personnel catalogued enemy equipment, collected supplies, recorded valuables, inspected workshops and infrastructure, identified items worth studying, and arranged transport toward secure Viridian positions. Ordinary soldiers could still receive shares of captured wealth after official division, but taking unrecorded spoils during operations was treated as theft from the expedition itself.

Rakhar looked toward Nerek.

"Any discipline problems?"

"Three soldiers attempted to conceal coins. Two others took personal valuables before inspection. Their officers reported them."

"Punishment?"

"Pay shares suspended and disciplinary labor assigned."

"Good."

One younger commander looked surprised.

"For a few coins?"

Rakhar turned toward him.

"For discipline. Today it is a few coins. Tomorrow fifty soldiers leave formation because they hear a merchant house contains silver."

The commander lowered his head.

Nerek continued.

"Brackenford itself remains useful. The palisade is damaged but repairable. The wells are intact. Several storage structures survived. There is enough housing to support a forward garrison, and the roads make it preferable to constructing a new camp nearby."

Rakhar studied the map.

"Keep it."

The order surprised no one.

"Repair only what is necessary. I do not want half the engineers rebuilding a village when they have a campaign to support."

"Yes, Grand Marshal."

Brackenford’s marker was changed from captured settlement to forward post.

The remaining reports were smaller but collectively more important. One detachment had observed a fortified manor and withdrawn without attacking after determining that the defenders were alert and the location held little immediate value.

Another had ambushed a patrol, killed several soldiers, and deliberately allowed survivors to escape. Several farms had been stripped of food. Two bridges were mapped but left untouched. Other scouts passed within sight of villages without revealing themselves at all.

A junior officer frowned while reading one report.

"This group had six humans trapped near the forest and allowed three to escape."

Rakhar looked toward the responsible commander.

"Why did you allow it?"

The commander answered without hesitation.

"They had already seen us. We wanted them to carry their fear towards the west."

The junior officer remained unconvinced.

"They can fight again."

"Yes," Rakhar said, "but they can also spread the news. It will lower their morale."

The room turned toward him.

"If every enemy dies, no one carries fear home. No one tells their commander how we attack. No frightened village closes its gate. No officer sends reinforcements toward a problem he would otherwise ignore."

He pointed toward Brackenford.

"The first seven scouts were discovered. Caldris responded by sending professional soldiers. We should learn something from their response."

The junior officer nodded slowly.

Rakhar continued before anyone misunderstood the lesson.

"That does not mean we release enemies for amusement. Survivors are useful only when their survival creates information, fear, movement, or mistakes. If letting someone escape serves no purpose, we should end their life."

The next set of markers showed places where Viridian troops had deliberately avoided combat. Rakhar approved of those as readily as successful ambushes.

The opening phase had never been intended as indiscriminate conquest. His advance forces existed to explore the region, test resistance, acquire supplies, observe military behavior, and discover how the humans reacted when pressure appeared in different places.

Some settlements deserved attack. Others were more useful untouched. A bridge might matter more than a village. A road could be worth more than a hundred dead enemies if it revealed where reinforcements traveled.

Rakhar looked around the assembled officers.

"Our purpose is not to make this map green as quickly as possible."

Several of them glanced toward the expanding markings.

"A village captured without reason is a distraction. A patrol destroyed without learning anything is merely a smaller enemy patrol. Every action must give us territory, resources, knowledge, or an advantage we can use later."

He pointed toward the incomplete western side of the map.

"We still know almost nothing about what lies beyond what our scouts have reached. That means we are still in the opening phase."

The officers waited.

Rakhar gave the final orders. Large fortified settlements were not to be assaulted without authorization. Professional Caldris formations were to be observed before engagement whenever circumstances allowed.

Scouts were to prioritize roads, bridges, river crossings, defensive positions, and military movement. The Reclamation Corps would continue operating behind secured forces, and unnecessary destruction of useful infrastructure was forbidden.

When the meeting finally began to disperse, Rakhar remained over the map.

Brackenford now stood as Viridian’s first permanent mark on Edras. Around it were roads, patrol routes, forest paths, small settlements, and dozens of uncertain lines that still required verification. Farther west, the map remained largely empty.

Rakhar did not find the emptiness frustrating.

He looked toward the officers preparing to leave the headquarters.

"Keep learning and observing on the enemies. I want fewer blank spaces on the map every time we meet."

Outside, new scouting groups were already preparing to move into the Caldris countryside while Reclamation wagons carried the first organized spoils of the campaign back toward Viridian-controlled territory. The opening battles had given them blood, supplies, and their first captured settlement, but Rakhar valued something else more.

Viridian was beginning to understand the world it had come to conquer.

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