Michael Pearce - Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman

The officers consulted briefly then came back to the rangers.

“Tell command we'll need support from the Battlemages; something to allow us to break off without getting hammered. We'll blow retreat when we need them, but we’re going to be in real trouble if they aren't ready.”

“Battlemages standing by when you blow retreat. Got it.” Engvyr said.

“Give us a quarter hour if you can,” Taarven told him as they ducked out of the shelter under their borrowed shields and raced away down the trench. They made it back unscathed and relayed the request. Other runners were sent to the Battlemages and the two rangers were instructed to grab some food and take a breather. There was half a cold ham, some cheese and bread in the command post and they munched on that while they rested.

“Here we go,” said one of the officers after a few minutes and moved into position to view the battle on the northern flank. Some of the other officers joined him and the two rangers came with them, pulling out their own spyglasses.

The cavalry had just come back for another pass, this time with their infantry at their heels to hit the dwarven lines as soon as they had softened them up with another hail of quarrels. The retreat sounded and as the oncoming cavalry began to fire, their mounts suddenly found themselves charging headlong into knee-deep mud. The results were catastrophic as ulvgaed went down en masse and those following crashed into them. Volleys slashed into the suddenly stationary cavalry. The ulvgaed, panicked, snapped at and trampled each other. The floundering beasts and goblins blocked their own infantry from advancing.

The dwarves of the 4th Regiment rose from the trenches and performed a fighting retreat, each rank firing a volley then moving back. The cavalry was massacred wholesale, their bodies forming a temporary obstacle to the infantry following them. The 4th moved behind the newly reoriented flank defenses and were ready to resume fire well before the Baasgarta infantry could close with them.

“I thought that might come in handy,” an officer said, “I've had the mages working on it ever since the cavalry came into view.”

Engvyr nodded. He was familiar with Battlemages and their uses from his time in the regiments. Big effects like this had to be used sparingly lest the mages 'burn out' from fatigue; if that happened they would be useless for hours or even days.

The day wore on and the battle seemed stalled along the front, neither side able to gain a concrete advantage. The battle on the northern flank however, was not going as well. The cavalry's repeated attacks had weakened the 4th, and they were slowly being pushed back as the day wore on.

One thing that seemed to be in their favor was that the Baasgarta either weren't using their battlemages or they didn't have any. Late in the afternoon one of the command staff, a captain, approached the rangers.

“I need you to go talk to the battlemages, see if they can detect any workings on the Baasgarta side. I'm starting to get the feeling they're saving them for something particularly nasty. Also ask them if they have any sense what has happened to Eastern Force; we need them and they should be here by now.”

They found the Battlemages a little down the slope from the command post. Many of them sat or stood, eyes closed. Some were resting, the others… well who knew what they might be doing? Catching the attention of a mage that didn't seem busy at the moment they motioned him over and explained the commander's concerns.

The mage frowned and said, “There’s definitely some magery going on over there.”

He indicated the city with a jerk of his head.

“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.