Chapter 113: New Orders

Chapter 113: New Orders

Six planetary months passed after Garran’s last strategic briefing, and the central sector remained the only front where not a single province had been completely conquered.

Mira’s Burrowkin had not been idle during those months, because they had captured villages, raided supply lines, undermined fortifications, and built an extensive underground network beneath roads, hills, forests, and abandoned settlements across several central provinces.

That network had become the foundation of Mira’s campaign. Burrowkin companies could disappear beneath the ground before Caldris cavalry reached them, travel through concealed passages, and emerge hours later behind another defensive position.

Underground storage chambers allowed soldiers to remain near contested territory without relying entirely on exposed wagon trains, while fortified burrows provided secure locations for wounded troops and reserves.

Those advantages had allowed Mira to survive in the most heavily defended region of Caldris for eighteen planetary months.

They had not, however, allowed her to completely conquer even one province, because every serious attempt to seize a provincial capital drew new Caldris reinforcements from the kingdom’s interior.

Surface territory changed hands repeatedly throughout the campaign. The Burrowkin captured towns and settlements only for royal armies to return weeks later, while Caldris forces sometimes reclaimed settlements without realizing that enemy formations remained beneath the surrounding countryside.

Mira had created a vast underground military presence, but the provincial governments above it continued functioning.

Her frustration had grown steadily as the months passed. Noah had finished conquering five eastern provinces long ago, while Mira continued fighting over fragments of the central sector despite having built tunnel systems that stretched across enormous distances.

During the sixth additional month, reports from the front began changing. Caldris patrols disappeared from several roads, defensive camps were abandoned, and some formations that had resisted the Burrowkin for months suddenly withdrew toward deeper positions.

Mira interpreted the movement as exhaustion. Her commanders reached similar conclusions after observing reduced patrol activity around several important routes, and preparations began for another large offensive intended to finally break the defensive network around one of the central provincial capitals.

Additional food and weapons moved into forward storage chambers while mobile Burrowkin formations shifted through deeper passages.

Mira believed the kingdom had finally weakened enough for her armies to exploit the opening before another royal reserve could arrive.

Caldris attacked before her offensive even began.

The first reports appeared disconnected. A captured town near one side of the Burrowkin network came under attack before sunrise, while several hours later another commander reported that one of his principal tunnel entrances had been seized by royal infantry.

A third position lost contact after Caldris engineers occupied the road running above one of Mira’s underground supply routes.

More reports arrived before Mira could respond to the first three. Royal troops struck surface settlements, cavalry moved along the roads connecting Burrowkin positions, and engineers began targeting entrances that had previously been considered too difficult to attack directly.

Within hours, Mira understood that the kingdom had not been retreating from the central sector. Caldris had been concentrating its forces.

The attack covered the entire Burrowkin network at once. Instead of attempting to chase enemy soldiers through tunnels, Caldris commanders focused on controlling the surface positions required for the underground network to function.

Human engineers collapsed shallow passages close to known entrances, while infantry established defensive positions around exits that Burrowkin formations had used repeatedly during the previous year.

Some underground routes near rivers were flooded where the terrain allowed it, and smoke was forced into several smaller tunnel systems to push soldiers toward watched exits.

Mira ordered counterattacks almost immediately. Burrowkin formations emerged behind several Caldris columns, destroyed supply wagons, attacked engineers, and disappeared underground before larger human forces could surround them.

Those attacks inflicted real losses, but they did not stop the wider advance. Caldris had prepared reserve formations behind its main lines specifically to respond when Burrowkin appeared in rear areas, allowing the central armies to continue attacking while secondary troops contained the sudden raids.

The humans had spent eighteen months learning how Mira’s civilization fought. They no longer needed to enter every tunnel or destroy every underground formation, because isolating sections of the network achieved almost the same strategic result.

The first major crisis developed around one of Mira’s largest underground staging complexes. Thousands of Burrowkin were stationed there alongside large stores of weapons and food, and several deep passages connected the position to other parts of the central network.

Caldris captured three major surface exits in a single day and collapsed two important connecting tunnels farther east. The stronghold remained defensible underground, but its soldiers could no longer move freely enough to support surrounding positions.

Mira refused to abandon them and ordered one of her largest mobile formations to reopen the connection.

The relief force traveled through deeper tunnels before dividing into several groups that would emerge around the Caldris containment positions from different directions.

The plan had succeeded many times during the earlier campaign, but the royal commanders anticipated the response.

Infantry and crossbowmen were stationed around the most likely emergence points, while engineers prepared to collapse secondary passages once large numbers of Burrowkin reached the surface.

The first relief formation emerged from a concealed hillside entrance and immediately encountered concentrated crossbow fire.

Soldiers behind the leading ranks tried to push forward, but the narrow tunnel mouth prevented enough Burrowkin from deploying at once to overwhelm the defenders.

Similar resistance appeared at the other exits. Several Burrowkin groups managed to reach the Caldris lines and inflicted heavy casualties in close combat, yet none opened enough space for the trapped stronghold to reconnect with the wider network.

By nightfall, the surviving relief forces were retreating underground. The stronghold remained isolated, and one of Mira’s strongest mobile formations had suffered serious losses without changing the strategic situation.

The failure triggered withdrawals across the central front. Burrowkin commanders abandoned exposed surface positions before Caldris could surround them, while several underground formations lost contact with neighboring armies after connecting passages were destroyed.

Captured towns began returning to Caldris control as royal troops pushed along the newly secured roads. Some Burrowkin remained beneath those settlements, but isolated underground garrisons could no longer contribute meaningfully to the wider campaign when they lacked reliable access to supplies, reinforcements, or other formations.

Mira watched her territorial network fragment over several planetary days and became increasingly furious. Large portions of her army were still alive, and numerous underground complexes remained untouched, which convinced her that the campaign could still be recovered if she concentrated enough force for another counterattack.

Garran reached a different conclusion.

He summoned the five planetary gods into an emergency consciousness meeting while Caldris continued advancing. The shared campaign map appeared between them, showing the central sector broken into disconnected Burrowkin pockets separated by Caldris-controlled roads and newly fortified surface corridors.

Noah appeared beside the fully occupied eastern region, while the northern, southern, and western gods formed around their respective fronts. Mira stood opposite Garran with visible anger as she examined what remained of the central network.

She immediately argued that the Burrowkin were still capable of fighting because many of the deeper complexes could survive underground for months.

Garran acknowledged that point without debating it, then redirected the discussion toward the actual mission by explaining that the Burrowkin’s ability to survive underground was no longer the same as possessing a functioning army capable of conquering provinces.

Mira wanted to gather her remaining mobile formations for another concentrated attack against Caldris’s rear and reconnect the severed network.

Garran rejected the proposal because the kingdom had already demonstrated that it could identify major emerging routes and prepare defensive forces around them, making another large relief attack likely to sacrifice Mira’s remaining mobile strength.

Her frustration shifted toward Noah once she understood the direction of Garran’s decision.

She questioned why her Burrowkin should abandon territory they had spent eighteen months fighting for only to allow Goblins to eventually enter the same central provinces.

Noah answered only once. Viridian had remained inside the east because Garran had ordered it to remain there, and he had offered assistance long before the central campaign began collapsing.

Garran ended the issue before another argument developed. He made clear that the decision concerned preserving Mira’s remaining forces rather than deciding which planetary god deserved the territory, then issued the withdrawal order.

The Burrowkin were to abandon exposed surface positions, evacuate supplies that could be moved, collapse tunnels Caldris might exploit, and recover isolated formations wherever doing so did not require another major battle.

Units that could not be rescued safely would remain underground or withdraw independently, while the main mobile forces returned toward Mira’s original secured invasion corridor.

The order effectively ended Mira’s central campaign. She hated abandoning the network her civilization had spent eighteen months constructing, but even she could see that Caldris was steadily reducing her freedom of movement on the surface.

After a long silence, Mira accepted the command.

The northern, southern, and western gods initially assumed the emergency decision concerned only the center. Garran changed the full campaign map and informed them that they would also begin organized withdrawals.

Their reactions were immediate because none of their fronts was collapsing. Each still controlled one complete province and additional contested territory, but Garran had already reviewed eighteen planetary months of progress and no longer considered the five-front strategy worth maintaining.

The results were simple enough to display without further argument. Noah controlled five complete provinces in the east, while the northern, southern, and western gods controlled one each. Mira controlled no complete province, and her central network was now collapsing under a coordinated Caldris counteroffensive.

Garran explained that continuing the same structure could consume years while gradually exhausting four participating civilizations.

Their armies still possessed value, and he intended to preserve them rather than sacrifice more soldiers merely to maintain the original sector assignments.

North, south, west, and center would therefore withdraw toward their secured invasion corridors. Garran allowed only brief objections before making clear that the decision was final, because the purpose of the operation was to conquer Caldris rather than determine which student could endure the longest campaign.

The atmosphere changed when Garran turned toward Noah.

Viridian had spent eighteen months doing exactly what had been demanded of it. The goblins conquered five provinces, stabilized the occupation, completed the million-man deployment, maintained large strategic reserves, and developed enough logistical depth to conduct multiple operations without weakening the territories already held.

Garran removed Noah’s eastern operational restriction and replaced it with a new objective.

Viridian would no longer serve as an eastern occupation army or a reserve waiting to reinforce another planetary god.

Noah would conquer the remaining Kingdom of Caldris.

The old sector boundaries would no longer restrict Viridian once the withdrawing allied armies cleared their corridors. Rakhar could move through the north, south, west, or center according to whatever strategy Noah and his commanders considered necessary.

Mira’s expression hardened when the order was given, but she no longer argued. The fragmented central map behind her made it impossible to deny what had happened to the Burrowkin campaign.

Noah also avoided any display of satisfaction. He accepted the assignment and focused immediately on the practical problem of coordinating Viridian’s mobilization with the retreating allied armies so that goblin formations would not interfere with their withdrawal routes.

Garran authorized full preparation immediately while requiring Noah to wait until the relevant corridors were clear before beginning unrestricted advances.

The other four gods would concentrate on preserving their remaining forces, while Viridian prepared to take over the war.

The consciousness map remained visible after the orders were finalized. The five original invasion sectors still divided Caldris for several moments, with Mira’s central positions breaking apart and the northern, southern, and western fronts beginning to contract toward their secured corridors.

Then the boundary surrounding Noah’s eastern territory disappeared.

Every province still under Caldris authority became part of his assigned objective, marking the end of the five-front invasion and the beginning of a single Viridian campaign against the entire kingdom.