My planet is infested with Goblins

Chapter 69: The Engines of Viridian

The Viridian camps remained awake long after Eastwatch disappeared beneath the darkness.

From the walls of the provincial capital, the defenders could see thousands of campfires spread across the countryside, but those fires revealed only the outer shape of the army surrounding them.

Behind the infantry camps, deeper inside Viridian-controlled ground, engineers continued working beneath rows of torches while supply wagons rolled between guarded construction areas.

Timber creaked beneath the weight of unfinished machines, hammers struck metal fittings, and officers moved between units carrying the final orders for the morning.

Grand Marshal Rakhar Veyr walked through the central camp without an escort beyond two aides, watching an army that had spent a month conquering the countryside prepare to do something it had deliberately avoided until now. Eastwatch would finally be attacked.

Rakhar stopped beside one of the engineering compounds that had been hidden from distant observation by timber screens, wagons, and rows of tents.

For several days, components had arrived from the rear in separate loads while local timber supplemented what the expedition had carried through the portal. Engineers assembled everything beyond the range of the walls, allowing Eastwatch to see activity without clearly identifying what was being built.

Tonight there was no longer any reason to conceal it. The chief engineer approached Rakhar and saluted before announcing that the first group of engines was ready to move into its prepared positions. Rakhar looked toward the screens and replied that they could begin.

Orders passed through the compound, and teams of goblins pulled away the first sections of the barriers. What emerged behind them immediately drew the attention of soldiers camped nearby.

Large wooden throwing engines stood beneath the torchlight, their frames reinforced at critical joints and their throwing arms resting low while crews checked ropes, axles, and release mechanisms.

The machines had been built to hurl heavy stones toward Eastwatch’s walls and towers, not with the expectation that a few impacts would collapse the fortifications, but to force defenders away from exposed positions and punish any section that became overcrowded.

Teams of engineers moved around them with practiced familiarity, checking the same components again even though each engine had already undergone repeated inspection.

The first throwing engine rolled forward under the combined effort of draft animals and goblin crews. Another followed behind it, then a third.

Infantrymen gathered along the edges of the route to watch them pass. Several soldiers began calling to friends in neighboring camps, and the news spread faster than any officer could have announced it. The siege engines were coming out.

Rakhar allowed the movement to continue while he followed at a slower pace. Behind the stone throwers came heavy bolt engines mounted on reinforced frames. Each resembled an enormous crossbow built for a crew instead of an individual soldier.

Thick arms stretched across wooden stocks longer than a goblin was tall, and the bolts stacked beside them resembled short spears more than ordinary ammunition. These weapons had been assigned different targets from the stone throwers.

Towers, concentrations of defenders, exposed gate structures, and anyone attempting to operate large defensive equipment above the walls would all fall within their purpose once morning came.

A veteran infantry captain standing near Rakhar watched one of the heavy engines pass and grinned.

"I would rather be behind that thing than in front of it."

Rakhar glanced toward him.

"Tomorrow you may still have to stand in front of something worse, so do not become too impressed."

The captain’s grin remained. "Then I will appreciate it tonight."

More soldiers laughed, though the laughter quickly disappeared beneath another wave of noise coming from farther inside the engineering compound.

A set of reinforced covered frames was being rolled into view. Beneath each protective roof hung a long timber beam capped with metal, suspended so that crews could drive it forward repeatedly while remaining partially protected from arrows, stones, and burning materials above. The battering rams were intended for Eastwatch’s gates, but Rakhar had already forbidden their deployment until the walls had been sufficiently suppressed.

Sending ram crews forward beneath untouched towers would waste lives for no reason.

One of the aides beside Rakhar looked toward the city. "They will see these once we move them farther forward."

"They already know we intend to attack."

"They do not know our methods."

Rakhar continued walking. "By sunrise, that will no longer matter."

The largest structures emerged last.

At first, only the upper frames became visible above the removed screens. Then the crews pulled the first completed siege tower into the open.

The massive wooden structure moved slowly on reinforced wheels, its front protected by layered timber and treated hides intended to resist arrows and reduce the danger of fire.

Internal ramps climbed through several levels, allowing assault infantry to remain protected until they reached the upper platform.

From the ground, the tower seemed enormous compared with the goblins surrounding it, but its height had been calculated for one purpose: reaching Eastwatch’s walls without requiring thousands of soldiers to climb exposed ladders.

The reaction from the watching troops was immediate.

A group of infantrymen began striking spear shafts against shields. Another formation answered with a shout. The noise spread through the camps as more soldiers realized what had been revealed.

Goblin voices rose from hundreds to thousands, rolling across the fields in waves. Banners were lifted above the crowds, shields rang beneath weapons, and soldiers who had spent weeks patrolling villages and guarding roads finally saw the machines that would carry the campaign against the strongest human position they had encountered.

The cheering grew louder when the second siege tower appeared behind the first.

Rakhar stopped beside Varek, who had approached from the main command camp after hearing the noise.

Varek watched the soldiers for several moments before asking whether the Grand Marshal intended to silence them. Rakhar looked toward Eastwatch, where small points of torchlight were already moving along the walls.

The humans had undoubtedly heard the cheering.

"Not yet," Rakhar answered.

Rakhar had no interest in pretending surprise remained possible. Eastwatch had watched Viridian legions gather for days.

The defenders knew an assault was coming. Allowing them to see the silhouettes of siege towers beneath the torchlight and hear thousands of goblins celebrating their arrival might accomplish something secrecy couldn’t.

Every defender on the wall would spend the remaining hours imagining those machines rolling toward him leading to a sleeplessnights. A small victory before the battle.

The cheering continued until Rakhar finally raised one hand toward the nearest commanders. Horns sounded across the central camps, not as a battle signal but as a demand for order.

The shouting gradually faded. Shield strikes ended. Formations returned to their assigned areas while engineers continued moving the machines toward positions prepared earlier in the day.

Rakhar proceeded through the remaining equipment. The siege towers drew the greatest attention, but he knew many battles were decided by less impressive tools.

Rows of large mantlets stood ready to protect advancing ranged troops. Bundles of fascines had been prepared for ditches and uneven ground. Ladders lay stacked near assault companies.

Hooks and heavy ropes waited beside engineering wagons. Water carts had been positioned near the siege towers and rams so crews could respond immediately if the humans used fire.

Reinforced ammunition carts carried stones, heavy bolts, arrows, and replacement components.

Eastwatch would not be attacked by one machine.

It would be attacked by an entire interconnected goblin war machine.

Rakhar gathered his senior commanders beside the first line of stone throwers once the equipment had reached its preliminary positions.

Varek stood at his right while infantry, ranged, engineering, and reserve commanders formed around a large ground map illuminated by lanterns. The city walls were represented by thick charcoal lines, with each gate, tower cluster, road, and visible defensive feature marked from weeks of observation.

Rakhar pointed toward the eastern and southeastern sections.

"The first phase is bombardment and suppression. Nobody rushes those walls when the sun rises in the horizon. Throwers begin together. Bolt engines engage visible defenders and defensive equipment. Ranged units move behind mantlets only after the first volleys."

An infantry commander asked, "And the towers?"

"They remains at the back until we see the enemies’ response."

"The rams?"

"The same we will move them on the front at the opportune time."

Rakhar looked around the group. "Eastwatch has spent weeks preparing for us. Do not assume one bombardment makes the defenders disappear. We test their wall sectors, their response times, their reserves, and how quickly they reinforce threatened positions. The first soldiers to die tomorrow should not die because their commander became excited by the sound of our own machines."

Several officers nodded.

Varek leaned over the map. "Pressure on every wall?"

"Enough that they cannot immediately identify the main assault. The northern batteries fire. Eastern batteries fire. Southern formations make visible preparations. We give them several problems at once."

"And once we see where they weaken?"

"Then we decide where the real weight goes."

Rakhar had deliberately left that decision partially open. A siege planned entirely before the defender reacted was a siege that ignored half the battlefield.

He intended to watch Eastwatch respond before committing the towers, rams, and largest infantry formations to one sector.

The commanders returned to their units after receiving the final assignments. Across the camps, the transition from celebration to preparation happened quickly.

Ranged troops received fresh bundles of ammunition. Infantry companies moved toward marked staging areas but remained far enough behind the forward lines to rest.

Healers organized litters, bandages, surgical tools, and water in treatment stations beyond the expected range of the walls.

Supply officers distributed food before midnight so combat formations would not need to leave their assigned sectors after dawn.

Engineers inspected every machine again.

The throwing engines received their first stones but were not fully tensioned. Heavy bolt crews laid ammunition beside their frames. Battering ram teams checked wheels and protective roofing.

Assault officers walked through the siege towers, testing ramps and confirming how many soldiers could occupy each level without disrupting movement.

Rakhar climbed partway up one of the towers shortly before midnight. From its upper platform, Eastwatch was visible across the dark fields. The walls appeared as a long black shape broken by torchlight and movement.

Human patrols walked the battlements. More lights had appeared since the Viridian cheering, proving that the display had achieved at least one immediate result. The defenders were awake.

Varek climbed after him.

"They are watching."

Rakhar kept his eyes on the walls. "They should be."

"A month ago, their army marched east looking for us."

"And now we are outside their capital."

Varek rested one hand on the timber railing. "The soldiers understand that too."

Rakhar did not answer immediately. The expedition had changed since Brackenford. The first scouts had approached human settlements carefully because they knew almost nothing about what awaited ahead.

Since then, they had fought organized infantry, endured cavalry charges, destroyed a counteroffensive, occupied an entire countryside, and isolated the province’s major cities. Eastwatch was simply the next problem, but it was also the first target large enough to justify the full machinery of the expedition.

Rakhar descended from the tower and returned to the ground.

The camps gradually quieted after midnight. Soldiers who had cheered at the siege engines now slept beside shields and weapons.

Others ate quietly around low fires before taking their turn resting. Veterans sharpened blades and checked armor straps. Officers walked through formations ensuring that excitement had not turned into sleeplessness.

Rakhar had issued one order repeatedly throughout the evening: no unit would attack early.

He would not allow some ambitious captain to start the siege because the horizon brightened twenty minutes before the assigned signal.

Near the throwing engines, Rakhar addressed the final group of senior commanders before dismissing them. "The first light touches the walls, and the bombardment begins. Not before. Every battery fires on signal. Every formation moves according to its assignment. We begin this together."

The order spread across the camps.

Hours remained before dawn.

Eastwatch stood silent beyond the fields while the siege towers waited beneath the night sky. Stone throwers sat loaded in their prepared positions.

Heavy bolt engines faced the walls. Battering rams remained covered behind the infantry staging grounds. Thousands of goblins rested with weapons within reach while engineers performed final checks by torchlight.

The cheering was gone, replaced by a quieter anticipation.

Rakhar stood near the forward command position and looked eastward as the black horizon slowly began losing its color. Soon the first line of sunlight would reach the walls of Eastwatch.

When it did, the month-long conquest of the province would give way to the battle for its capital.

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