Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman

“It's deep inside the city though, and it's focused there, not out here. We've been trying to suss it out but it's different than anything we've dealt with before. I don't know what we should be expecting but I doubt we'll like it. As for Eastern Force, well, hang on a few minutes and we'll try to see what's what.”

He went over to a group of the standing mages and interrupted them with a touch on the sleeve. He spoke to them, gesturing to the rangers and then to the command area. They nodded and they all moved into a circle and closed their eyes. Engvyr looked at Taarven, who shrugged. After a few minutes the mage returned.

“Eastern Force is going to be late,” he told them, “The Baasgarta apparently broke a dam in one of the branch valleys and the flooding has slowed them down. I'm not sure how bad it was but I doubt we can expect them before midnight.”

The rangers relayed this to the commanders.

“This is not good,” Colonel Oakes said. He was the leader of the 3rd rifles and in overall command. “They're still pushing us back from the north, and they've brought their reserve to bear there as well. If something doesn't happen soon they're going to roll us up.”

They'll break the siege, Engvyr thought, and if they push us out of the fixed defenses it's going to get ugly fast. The truth was that they had gone into this fight outnumbered more than two to one. Generally when attacking you wanted to out-number the enemy, but the dwarves had been forced into the fight before the remainder of their army could get there. Their superior training, discipline and weapons might still have carried the day, but with the forces that the Baasgarta had brought down from the north they were now outnumbered at least four to one.

Engvyr and Taarven were sent forward again, this time to see how the 4th was holding up. They had much less far to travel this time. The situation, they found, was desperate.

“The Baasgarta are almost into the trenches, and we've nothing that can stop them,” they were told. Once the goblins were in the trenches the fighting would go hand-to-hand. While the dwarves would give as good as they got in such a fight that wasn't good enough, not while they were so heavily outnumbered. They would be overrun within the hour.

The rangers returned and passed the grim report along to command, who began furiously trying to come up with some manner of stopping the Baasgarta.

So this is what it comes to, Engvyr thought as he looked to the north in the gathering dark, If only we could just hold out until Eastern Force arrives… That was wishful thinking though. Movement caught his eye, a rippling in the darkness. The moon had not yet risen and he couldn't make out what it was. Had their reinforcements arrived after all?

He peered through his scope but he still couldn't see what the source of the disturbance was. It seemed to cover a good-sized area. Fires had been lit along the northern flank to light the battle but whatever was moving out there was too distant for the glow to reveal them. Suddenly hundreds of torches flared into life, illuminating a battalion formation just now flinging aside their darkly colored cloaks.

“You need to see this,” he called urgently. The officers came over and looked, many of them raising their own spyglasses. Engvyr looked again himself. The troops of the unknown formation were wearing breastplates over bright blue tunics, bright red leggings and caps. They appeared to be carrying a mix of pikes and short spears or…

“Are those rifles?” asked one of the staff in disbelief.

The question of whose side they were on was answered quickly enough. The Baasgarta noticed them and a group broke off to close with the newcomers, who stopped and spread out into line, four ranks deep. When the Baasgarta closed to just over a hundred paces the unknown force leveled their weapons and fired. The noise was just perceptible over the din of battle.

Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop!

The first rank of riflemen fired five shots in rapid succession! They knelt and the ranks behind them moved past them and fired.

Pop Pop Pop Pop Pop!

Somehow the distant gunners were firing a shot every second. The effect on the Baasgarta was devastating. The ranks kept leapfrogging forward, firing constantly and the Baasgarta melted away before them. The sound of distant screams came to them as the goblin casualties writhed on the ground until the advancing troops bayonetted them before continuing to advance.

“What the bloody hell?”

Engvyr wasn't sure who had said it but it summed up their collective feelings nicely. The strange battalion cut between the 4th and the Baasgarta, driving the enemy back and dropping to assume defensive positions. For the moment it appeared the flank was secure.