Chapter 230: Overrun

Chapter 230: Overrun

The goblins remained inside the positions they had retaken, but the work ordered after the previous attacks was still unfinished. Soldiers were clearing broken material from damaged sections, machine-gun crews were replacing the ammunition they had used, and recovery teams were still carrying wounded men away from the firing areas. Those who had been allowed to rest stayed close to their weapons in case the Astragoths returned.

They did not get much time. Goblin observers at several positions reported new groups of Astragoths gathering beyond the exposed ground in front of the defenses. The first reports mentioned ordinary creatures, but armored Astragoths soon appeared among them. More groups continued arriving behind those already visible, and observers who had seen little fighting earlier were now reporting the same movement.

The senior commander compared the reports before contacting Noah. Large groups were forming opposite most of the goblin defenses rather than concentrating only on the sections damaged during the earlier attacks.

Noah ordered the repairs stopped immediately. Soldiers dropped their tools beside the openings and returned to their rifles. Machine-gun crews opened ammunition containers beside their weapons, while RPG teams moved closer to the damaged sections where armored Astragoths were already visible. Recovery teams carrying wounded soldiers continued toward the rear instead of returning to the firing areas.

The Astragoths began advancing before every goblin crew had finished preparing.

Machine-gun crews opened fire once the leading ordinary creatures came within effective range. Riflemen fired at Astragoths moving outside the machine-gun lanes, while tank crews and RPG teams engaged the armored creatures advancing among them. The first groups took heavy losses while crossing the exposed ground between the areas where they had gathered and the goblin defenses.

More Astragoths continued behind them.

When the leading creatures fell, those farther back stepped around the bodies and continued toward the goblins. Machine-gun crews moved directly from one group of targets to the next. At several firing points, loaders began opening additional ammunition while their gunners were still firing.

One officer reported that both machine-gun crews under his command had been firing almost continuously since the attack began. The senior commander ordered them to maintain their fire while the Astragoths were still outside the defenses. If the crews reduced their fire too early, more creatures would reach the damaged openings at the same time.

The tank crews faced another problem. During the earlier attacks, several of them had been able to turn their turrets toward armored Astragoths threatening nearby goblins. They no longer had that option. Multiple armored creatures were moving toward each group of defenders, forcing the tank crews to keep their guns on targets approaching the riflemen directly in front of them.

At one damaged section, three armored Astragoths advanced toward different openings. The RPG team killed the first. A tank crew behind the riflemen destroyed the second. The third survived a rocket and continued toward the largest break in the defenses.

The local officer requested help from a tank crew stationed beside a neighboring group of goblins. The tank commander refused after explaining that two armored Astragoths were already approaching his own riflemen. Turning his turret away would leave both creatures free to reach them.

The officer ordered his RPG team to fire again.

The second rocket struck the armored Astragoth, but the creature remained alive long enough to reach the damaged opening. It struck the defenses with its tail, throwing broken material into the riflemen stationed behind the gap. Several goblins were killed, and ordinary Astragoths following the larger creature immediately moved toward the opening.

The tank crew assigned to those riflemen killed the armored Astragoth with its next shot, but the opening had already widened. The ordinary creatures behind it were close enough to enter. Riflemen fired through the break while another armored Astragoth moved toward a lower damaged section farther along the same defenses.

The officer kept both machine-gun crews firing at the Astragoths outside and divided his riflemen between the two damaged sections. Half remained behind the larger opening while the others moved toward the lower break.

At the large opening, the riflemen shot the first Astragoths that entered, but more reached the same section before the defenders could settle back into place. At the lower section, the second armored creature struck the defenses before an RPG team killed it. The impact widened another break, allowing ordinary Astragoths to reach the riflemen there as well.

One machine-gun crew continued firing toward the exposed ground while Astragoths that had already entered through the large opening moved along the inside of the defenses. The creatures reached the firing point from behind. The crew tried to turn the weapon, but the Astragoths reached the goblins before they could bring the gun around.

The machine-gun crew was killed, and the weapon fell silent.

The local officer saw Astragoths moving between both damaged sections and the abandoned firing point. Several riflemen were already moving toward the rear, while the second machine-gun crew still had a clear route away from the fighting.

He informed the senior commander that Astragoths had entered through two openings and killed one machine-gun crew. The senior commander ordered the remaining goblins to withdraw immediately. They were to abandon the second machine gun if necessary and move toward the nearest group of goblins that still had working heavy weapons.

Some soldiers reached the rear and escaped. Others had already been separated from the exit by Astragoths moving between the openings. The second machine-gun crew abandoned its weapon once ordinary creatures reached the ammunition stacked beside it.

Soon afterward, the goblin officer and soldiers who had remained inside could no longer be contacted.

The loss created a new problem for the goblins defending the nearest position. Astragoths no longer approached them only from the exposed ground directly in front. Some passed through the captured defenses, moved beyond the abandoned firing points, and advanced toward the neighboring goblins from the side closest to the lost position.

The officer there ordered one machine-gun crew to turn toward those creatures. The second crew continued firing at the Astragoths still advancing from the front.

With one gun redirected, more ordinary Astragoths survived the fire coming from the front. Riflemen behind the damaged sections began engaging them at shorter range.

An RPG team fired at an armored Astragoth moving toward one opening. The first rocket missed. The second struck the creature but failed to stop it. The nearby tank crew could not help. Two armored creatures were already close to the riflemen around their vehicle.

The RPG team had one rocket remaining. Their officer ordered them to use it.

The final rocket struck the armored Astragoth, but it still reached the defenses and hit the damaged section with its tail. Riflemen near the break were knocked aside. Ordinary Astragoths entered behind the creature before the surviving goblins could block the opening again.

The RPG team had no rockets left, and the tank crew was still engaging its own targets. The officer began withdrawing soldiers before the Astragoths could move through the defenses and reach the route behind them. One machine-gun crew continued firing while groups of riflemen moved away.

Those goblins reached another defended area with Astragoths following close behind. The machine-gun crews waiting there could not fire continuously while friendly soldiers were running directly between their weapons and the pursuing creatures.

The crews opened fire whenever the retreating goblins cleared their firing lanes, stopped when another group crossed in front of them, then fired again. Each interruption allowed the Astragoths to move closer. Some goblins had not reached the soldiers waiting behind the next defenses before the riflemen there were forced to fire past them.

Reports from other goblin officers showed that the same problem was developing elsewhere. The defenders of two positions had been forced out. The goblins at another could no longer be contacted. Several RPG teams were nearly out of rockets, and one tank crew reported that its vehicle could no longer fire after an armored Astragoth reached it while the turret was aimed at another creature.

The senior commander warned Noah that several officers were keeping their soldiers inside damaged defenses after losing the weapons they needed to stop armored Astragoths. Waiting for individual permission to withdraw increased the chance that enemy creatures would reach the routes behind those soldiers before they could leave.

Noah changed the order. "If Astragoths are already inside your defenses and you have lost the heavy weapons you need to remove them, withdraw without waiting for me. Send the survivors toward the nearest goblins who still have working weapons."

The new order allowed several groups to leave before they were surrounded. It also sent more exhausted soldiers toward the goblins still fighting farther back. Some arrived without officers. Others carried only the ammunition left in their magazines or pouches. The local commanders placed those riflemen behind damaged sections as soon as they arrived.

One of the strongest remaining groups received survivors from two defenses that had already fallen. Both machine-gun crews were still alive. A tank remained behind the riflemen, and the RPG teams still had several rockets.

Their officer had only begun placing the arriving soldiers when Astragoths approached from two locations. One large group moved across the exposed ground directly in front of the goblins. Another came out of a captured goblin position and headed toward a damaged section nearby.

The officer assigned one machine-gun crew to each group. The tank crew fired at armored Astragoths approaching from the front, while the RPG teams engaged armored creatures coming from the captured defenses.

The first rockets killed two armored Astragoths. The tank crew destroyed another. More armored creatures continued behind them.

One survived an RPG hit and reached a damaged section. It struck the defenses and widened the opening enough for several ordinary Astragoths to enter together. The officer moved more riflemen toward that break, leaving fewer soldiers at another damaged section.

Astragoths coming from the captured defenses reached the second opening before enough riflemen could return. The machine-gun crew covering that side fired into them, but the creatures were already close enough to reach the goblins operating the weapon.

Riflemen fought beside the machine gun while more Astragoths entered through the damaged section. The creatures reached the crew, killed the goblins operating the gun, and ended the fire from that side.

The officer looked toward the rear. Soldiers from the earlier withdrawals were mixed with his own men, while Astragoths continued entering through both openings. He informed the senior commander that one machine-gun crew had been lost and that he no longer had enough riflemen to stop creatures entering through both damaged sections.

The senior commander ordered him to withdraw while the route behind his soldiers remained clear.

The officer sent the goblins closest to the rear first. Riflemen farther forward continued firing while the others moved. When Astragoths reached the remaining machine-gun crew from behind, the surviving crew members abandoned the weapon and joined the withdrawal.

Some goblins escaped. Others were cut off before they reached the rear.

More goblin units began failing within a short period. Astragoths killed one RPG team before its members could fire their remaining rockets. Another officer reported enemy creatures entering through two damaged sections. The senior commander lost contact with the officer and soldiers at another defense while trying to determine whether they had begun withdrawing.

Noah tried to identify which groups of goblins farther back could still take in retreating soldiers, but the information changed before new orders could be completed. One officer reported Astragoths inside his defenses only moments after earlier reporting that his men were still holding them. Another officer began withdrawing his soldiers before survivors from a nearby defense could reach him.

The remaining tank crews were occupied with armored creatures close to their own infantry. Machine-gun crews kept their weapons aimed at Astragoths already approaching their firing points. No commander could redirect a heavy weapon toward another group without leaving his own soldiers with fewer weapons against the creatures in front of them.

The goblins were forced out of three neighboring positions within a short period. Astragoths moved through the abandoned defenses and reached goblin groups withdrawing behind them. Some retreating soldiers were already heading toward other goblin units that had begun fighting their own attacks.

Noah ordered the withdrawing groups not to continue toward another defense if Astragoths had already moved between them and the goblins stationed there. Those soldiers were to continue away from the captured defenses until they found a route without enemy creatures blocking it.

The withdrawal became harder to organize as more goblin groups were forced out. Some reached friendly soldiers farther back, while others changed direction after seeing Astragoths ahead. Wounded goblins moved with riflemen who had lost their officers, and weapon crews abandoned ammunition they could no longer carry while retreating.

At one remaining defense, goblin soldiers saw survivors running toward them from a lost position with Astragoths following close behind. The machine-gun crew held its fire until the retreating goblins moved out of the weapon’s firing lane.

By the time the crew opened fire, the first Astragoths were already close.

The arriving goblins had no time to be organized into new groups. Officers sent riflemen behind the nearest damaged openings while wounded soldiers continued toward the rear. An armored Astragoth reached one of those openings before the newly arrived riflemen finished taking their places.

The last clear message from the goblin officer there stated that he was moving more riflemen toward the damaged section. After that, the command channel carried gunfire and voices that could not be understood. The senior commander called the officer several times, but none of the goblins there gave another complete response.

Several of the defenses retaken during the counterattack were now occupied by Astragoths, and enemy groups were moving beyond them toward the goblins withdrawing farther back.

Noah looked at the latest reports. Officers at several adjacent defenses had either stopped answering or confirmed that Astragoths were already among their soldiers. Goblin groups were retreating separately. Some reached friendly troops who were already fighting their own attacks, while others changed direction after finding Astragoths between them and the goblins they had been ordered to join.

The goblin units that had previously supported one another could no longer do so. Astragoths had passed the former machine-gun and RPG firing points and were reaching the soldiers withdrawing behind them. The goblins had not established another connected group of defenses before the Astragoths caught up.

The Astragoths had pierced the goblin defensive line. Soldiers still fighting inside the remaining defenses faced Astragoths in front of them while other enemy groups moved through captured positions toward their sides and rear. The withdrawing goblins had no prepared defenses where they could stop together, and more groups were being overrun before they could regroup.