My planet is infested with Goblins

Chapter 86: The Eastern Front Collapses

The first reports from the south reached the eastern Caldris command as scattered rumors carried by exhausted runners, but the truth became impossible to dismiss when the sounds of fighting began growing louder from streets that should have been secure.

The eastern sector had spent nearly the entire siege focused outward, toward Grand Marshal Rakhar Veyr’s army beyond the shattered gate and the Viridian footholds clinging to the battlements.

More recently, soldiers had been forced to face north as well, where goblins from the captured northern gate were pressing through the interior streets. Even then, the eastern commander had managed to keep his defenses together by shifting companies from one threatened position to another.

That fragile balance finally disappeared when a bloodied messenger stumbled into the command post and reported that the southern gate had fallen and a large Viridian formation was already marching east through the city.

The eastern commander stared at the man for several seconds before asking, "How large?"

"Thousands entered through the gate, sir. The southern defenders are withdrawing toward the center. One of their formations turned east almost immediately."

The commander looked toward the wall above him, where the sound of ballista bolts and crossbow fire had never truly stopped. "How far?"

"Close enough that scouts have already seen their forward ranks."

The commander called for officers from the nearest companies and ordered a new internal line established to the south. Barricades were to be thrown across the widest approaches, professional infantry placed behind them, and whatever militia could be found gathered to support the line.

The order was necessary, but everyone standing around him understood its cost. Those soldiers had to come from positions that were already under pressure. Men were pulled away from the shattered eastern gate. Others left the battlements.

A reserve company that had been preparing to reinforce the northern streets was divided before it could move. The eastern sector was still holding, but each new threat was carving another piece away from the same dwindling force.

Outside the city, Rakhar noticed the change almost immediately. Through his viewing tube, he watched groups of Caldris soldiers descend from the wall and disappear into Eastwatch. The central wall tower still flew human colors, and the barricade beyond the shattered gate remained intact, but the lines protecting both positions were thinner than they had been earlier. Varek stood beside him, studying the same movement without the benefit of the glass.

"They are pulling troops again."

Rakhar lowered the viewing tube. "Not toward the north this time."

A messenger arrived moments later from the relay network. "Southern gate is confirmed open. Southern formations are inside Eastwatch. One major column has been sent east."

Rakhar’s expression barely changed, but his answer came immediately. "Increase pressure everywhere. Both footholds advance. Gate troops prepare for another assault. Catapults and ballistas maintain fire on exposed positions."

Varek glanced toward the shattered gate. "You are going back in?"

"When the defenders inside that passage were strongest, we failed three times. They are not strongest anymore."

The renewed eastern attack began with the battlements. Viridian troops at the first foothold moved toward the central wall tower while the second position expanded along its section of the wall. Caldris soldiers who had been ordered south found themselves called back before they could leave. Spears lowered. Shields locked.

Crossbowmen returned to firing positions. The humans still fought with the same discipline that had frustrated Rakhar for hours, but there were fewer of them now, and every casualty opened gaps that had once been filled by reserves waiting only a stairway away.

Inside Eastwatch, the southern Viridian formation made contact with the first improvised defensive line. Caldris soldiers had thrown carts and timber across a broad street between several buildings, with crossbowmen stationed in upper windows and professional infantry standing behind the obstruction.

It was a respectable position considering how little time they had been given, but the approaching goblins had spent far less of the day fighting than the men waiting for them.

Viridian shield-bearers advanced in several ranks while crossbowmen moved through adjacent streets and doorways to find better firing angles.

The first clash stopped the goblins at the barricade. Human spears thrust over the carts and killed several soldiers before axe crews could reach the timber. Crossbow bolts struck shields and armor.

For a time, the Caldris line held. Then Viridian detachments began appearing on neighboring roads, forcing the defenders to turn militia away from the main position. The southern commander did not need to break the barricade immediately. He only needed Caldris to keep feeding soldiers into it.

To the north, the same pressure continued. The Viridian formation that had entered through the northern gate attacked another series of intersections leading toward the eastern sector.

Human defenders formed shield lines across the streets and fought stubbornly, but their reinforcements were now arriving in smaller groups because the eastern commander was splitting them between north and south. Every time the humans strengthened one direction, another weakened.

The eastern commander stood over a hastily prepared map and listened to reports come faster than he could answer them. The northern line needed more infantry. The southern barricade wanted crossbowmen. The wall tower requested reinforcements.

The shattered gate reported Viridian troops assembling outside again. One officer suggested abandoning the southern internal line and concentrating everything around the gatehouse.

Another immediately objected. "If we abandon the south, they reach the rear of the gatehouse."

"And if we keep feeding troops south, the gate falls from the front."

The commander looked between them and understood there was no correct choice left. Every option preserved one position by exposing another. "Hold every line with what it has. No transfers without my order."

It was an attempt to stop the constant bleeding of manpower from one crisis to another, but the order came too late.

On the battlement, Rakhar’s first foothold gained enough ground to partially isolate the central wall tower. Viridian troops did not storm the structure directly. Instead, they moved along the surrounding wall and forced Caldris soldiers to defend the entrances while the goblins occupied the battlement beside them.

The tower still fired crossbows from above, but its value as an anchor was beginning to disappear as the wall around it changed hands.

Rakhar saw the expansion and turned toward the gate.

"Advance."

The fourth major attack through the shattered eastern entrance began.

Shield-bearing goblins moved toward the barricade that had repelled them three times. The physical obstacle was still formidable: wagons, timber, barrels, broken stone, and human shields packed into the passage beyond the destroyed outer doors.

What had changed was the number of soldiers defending it. Crossbow fire came more slowly. The spear line was thinner. The ranks behind the barricade no longer contained enough fresh men to rotate continuously.

The first Viridian push reached the obstruction and stalled.

Human spears killed several goblins. A short counterattack drove others backward from one opening. For several minutes, the old killing ground seemed to return.

Rakhar did not commit everything.

"Rotate the front. Second group forward."

Fresh shield-bearers replaced the first ranks. Axe troops attacked one weakened section of the barricade while crossbowmen fired toward defenders above. A Viridian ballista bolt struck a wooden firing position inside the gatehouse and forced several Caldris shooters from cover.

The second assault pushed deeper.

At the same time, the southern internal battle changed. Viridian axe crews finally tore apart part of the hastily built barricade. Goblin shield-bearers forced themselves through the gap while another formation appeared along a side road. The Caldris officer responsible for the position ordered a counterattack, but the soldiers he had expected to reinforce him never arrived. They had been diverted north.

The line bent.

Then one flank gave way.

Southern Viridian troops flooded through the broken section and began expanding into the streets behind it.

The report reached the eastern commander almost simultaneously with another from the north.

"Southern barricade lost."

"Northern line withdrawing from the second intersection."

A third messenger arrived before either could be answered. "The gate barricade is failing."

The commander closed his eyes for only a moment.

Outside, Viridian axe troops dragged part of the eastern gate obstruction aside. A wagon shifted. Timber collapsed into the passage. Shield-bearers forced themselves into the opening and survived long enough for more soldiers to follow. Caldris infantry attempted to close the breach but lacked the depth that had saved them earlier.

The third Viridian formation pushed through.

This time, the goblins did not retreat.

They gained ground beyond the shattered gate.

Rakhar raised his viewing tube and watched Viridian banners appear where no banner had remained after the earlier assaults.

"More infantry through," he ordered. "Steady columns. Do not crowd the entrance."

Fresh companies advanced.

Inside the eastern sector, Caldris formations began losing contact with one another. The northern internal force took another street after the defenders withdrew to avoid being flanked. Southern goblins advanced toward the rear of the gatehouse.

The wall tower was nearly surrounded on the battlement level. Viridian soldiers were now entering directly through the eastern gate from outside.

The eastern commander received all four reports within minutes.

He studied the map again, but there was no eastern defensive line left to study. There were only isolated positions connected by streets increasingly threatened by goblins.

"If we stay," one officer said quietly, "the north and south close behind us."

The commander knew he was right.

He looked toward the wall that his soldiers had defended since dawn, then toward the streets leading deeper into Eastwatch.

"Order withdrawal to the center. Professional infantry forms the rear guard. Militia and wounded move first. Abandon the wall and gatehouse if necessary. We preserve the men."

The command spread slowly at first, then faster as units realized they were finally permitted to leave positions that had become impossible to hold. Caldris soldiers descended from the battlements. Others abandoned the battered gatehouse and fell back through side streets.

The central wall tower’s surviving defenders withdrew before complete isolation, leaving Viridian troops to enter the structure from multiple directions.

Goblin banners began appearing across the eastern wall.

At the shattered gate, Rakhar’s main force marched through in ordered columns, passing the broken barricade where so many Viridian soldiers had died earlier.

There was no great cheer from the Grand Marshal. He watched his troops enter and immediately directed them toward secured streets rather than allowing them to scatter.

The northern and southern Viridian formations continued closing around the retreating Caldris troops, forcing them toward the center rather than allowing them to reform nearby.

The eastern sector had resisted longer than any other part of Eastwatch. It had broken siege towers, held its battlements, stopped repeated attacks through a shattered gate, and forced Rakhar to change the entire shape of the battle.

In the end, it did not fall because one big charge finally proved stronger than the defenses. It fell because the northern gate opened, the southern gate followed, and the soldiers who had once faced one enemy direction were eventually forced to face three.

By the time the last organized Caldris units withdrew from the eastern district, Viridian controlled the wall behind them, the shattered gate below it, and the streets on both sides.

Rakhar’s troops entered from outside while northern and southern goblin formations advanced from within, and the eastern front that had consumed the entire opening phase of the siege ceased to exist.

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