Running the Gauntlet

East Gate, Frontier City

Thousands of people and soldiers from the city crowded around the only exit that still remained free of Imperial troops as they tried to escape the burning city. In the sea of chaos, only a small area was in order, the men of the Last Company and 19th Guardians had formed into an infantry square formation, protecting their dependables inside the square.

Earlier when they retreated from the Western Wall, they found a noble who told them that the East Gate still stands and there are no Imperial forces sieging that gate. Borse decided to head towards that Gate in hopes that what the nobles said were true as he could see the North, West, and South districts were on fire.

He crudely told Lanser that if he wants to follow along he has to listen to his command and Lanser willingly agreed. Borse than told Lanser to have his men go retrieve their families if they have in the city within 2 hours and meet up at the East side of the city. Anyone not there in time will be left behind.

The men of the 19th Guardians were mostly second or third sons from rich families. Borse ordered them if they bring their families along, they can only bring what they could carry on them. Any excess luggage they were to carry themselves as the road towards the next city will be very rough.

Next Borse ordered half his men to go requisite more wagons, land dragons, and supplies for the road ahead. They were relatively unmolested as the Empire troops were hitting the North and West areas of the city while the South Gate was under heavy siege from the Imperial ships.

Most of the 19th Guardians returned with their families in tow, but some of their dependants brought extra luggage, citing that its all their valuables and important things which Borse ignored.

"You brought it along, you carry it yourself!" Borse crudely informed them. "No soldiers here will carry your luggage for you nor will the wagons are for you!"

Those that came with their own carriages were forced out and the company wounded were placed inside. The soldiers ignored the outraged owners and while their sons tried to calm their families down.

"Captain?" Lanser stood beside Borse who was mentally counting the number of wagons they have. "Most of those people are powerful, they have the means to make life difficult for you if you treat them badly."

"Why would I care?" Borse asked, "I'm not a Meccan nor Foralian citizen. Our wounded needs those carriages more than their fat asses."

Lanser gave a cough of embarrassment, while Taris at the side laughed. Taris clapped Lanser's back and said, "Come on you are a soldier, cuss wounds are normal here. Besides, the important thing is our lives, what can gold do if you have no food to buy? Can you eat gold or diamonds?"

Borse nodded in agreement, before ordering some of his men to dump the excess luggage off some of the merchant wagons, that they secretly piled into. "Remove those and load the supplies in.

The soldier dragged the chests off the wagons and without any care just flung them to the side where the chest broke and rolls of fabric and jewelry spilled out from the broken chests. The owners cried as if they lost they're first born, kneeling over the spilled items and trying to gather them up while cursing and threatened the soldiers who gave a grinned and continued to dump the unwanted luggage off.

"We need all the supplies we need to make the distance to the next City," Borse gave a crude explanation. "And we allowed you and your men to bring their family along rather than letting everyone to die here."

"Alright, its time to go!" Borse looked back at the Western Wall. "The Imperial soldiers will soon sack finish the West District. We need to move now, we can't wait anymore!"

With that Borse ordered the soldiers to form up into a square formation with all the wagons and dependants in the middle and marched off towards the East Gate. Halfway there, they found the way blocked hundreds and hundreds of people attempting to escape out by the East Gate.

Using the blunt ends of their spears and shields, the men forced their way through, ignoring the cries of outrage and battered their way towards the gate. Some of the Meccan and Foralian soldiers quickly attached themselves to the company as they saw that they were disciplined enough to still hold together in a formation, giving them hope to escape this place.

As they came within view of the massive gates, Borse frowned as he saw the gates were closed. "Alright, boys! The gate is within sight! Let's move up!"

They forced their way to the front and found barricades with Meccan soldiers blocking the Gate. People in small groups of twos or threes appeared to allow through the barricades and out from the side door of the Gate after paying some fee.

Borse yelled, "Who's in command here?"

The soldiers looked Borse in his mismatch armor and sneered, "If you want to pass, its 1 gold piece per person! No money, get lost from here!"

"What?" Lanser came up next to Borse and frowned, "Bring your officer out here now!"

The soldiers seeing Lanser in his Guardian armor and his sash of office paled in fright, "Yes, Captain! A- Ah wait a moment please!"

A short while later the soldiers returned with a fat officer in an undersize plate mail who wobbied out from the Guard House and looked at the group of soldiers with a look of disdain. "You want to get out of the city?"

"Yes!" Lanser nodded. "Out the gates! Let these people out!"

"Deserters!" The fat officer yelled and pointed a puny finger at the astonished Lanser. "You soldiers are running away from the Empire! Go back to your post or don't blame me for being merciless!"

Lanser's mouth hung wide open in shock, while Taris at the side held back his laughter at Lanser's expression. Boris's face only turned darker and without a word, he turned around and looked at his men's confident faces. "Breakthrough!"

The men roared and charged, stunning the guards at the gate. The fat officer was so shocked that he toppled onto his back and sat on the floor staring at the soldiers slamming the barricades down and attacking the guards while the civilians at the side cheered.

"Tr- Traitors!" The fat officer cried out in fear, "Rebels! It's a coup! You are Imperial agents! Spies! Traitors!"

"Shut his fat mouth!" Borse roared and pointed to the fat officer who saw several soldiers led by Lanser coming over the broken barricade directly at him. He gave a yelp of fear and quickly crawled to his feet and wobbled off to lock himself in the Guard House.

Most of the guards around the gate were taken by surprise but a few resisted and were cut down. "Quickly before more guards come! Lift the gate bars up! Lanser! Bring some of you men to the Gatehouse and open the portcullis!"

The civilians seeing the soldiers lifting the heavy crossbar of the gate surged forward to help, while Lanser led some of his men up the tower and into the Gatehouse. He used his authority to force his way in and had the portcullis raised.

The gates slowly swung open by hundreds of hands and everyone cheered. "Move it! Don't push!" Borse yelled at the people who quickly ran out of the city.

"Let's go!"

-----

Three months later, over the Goblin Sea

Specks of white fluffy snow drifted down from the grey skies, limiting visibility by more than half. The heavy drones of heavy engines rumbled loudly inside the cabin of the seaplane flying over the Goblin Sea.

Airforce Corporeal Eisan walked over the metal scaffolding inside the plane where dozens of dark olive green cigar shaped bombs hung on racks. He carefully checked each rack of 50 kg cast iron bombed pained in dark olive green with a yellow band around the nose to ensure the bombs were not knocked loose from their cradles.

A total of three bomb racks lined both sides of the scaffolding and each rack held four bombs. Eisan passed by the legs of Airforce Private Lukon who manned the top turret as he headed towards the forward bay of the seaplane bomber.

The scaffolding split into two ways, one going up and the other going down. The steps up led to the radio, radar and navigation station and directly to the cockpit while the steps going down led to the crew resting area and pantry before coming to the access of the nose turret.

The Flying Boat "Mariner" (FB-1) was the latest and largest plane ever built yet by the Colony. Powered by two heavy 14-cylinder radial engines and with a range of over 3,000 kilometers. It can carry a load of 6,500 kg. It comes armed with a dual .50 caliber air-cooled heavy machine for the nose, dorsal and tail turrets and one each in blisters amidships

The sea gull wing design of the plane has a flight speed of 310 km per hours, allowing it to reach the Goblin City within six hours. The planes had to refuel halfway with a special seaplane tender out in the sea as the entire airforce fleet of Mariners made their way to bomb the goblin's capital.

The three Mariner bombers were cruising at a speed of 290 km at an altitude of five thousand meters above sea level. The crew of seven had to wear oxygen masks and thick coats to allow them to function so high up.

"Mother to Seagull One," The radio came to life just as Eisan sat down on his station. "What is your status over?"

"Seagull One to Mother, we are looking fine," Eisan replied while he pulled out a chart, "ETA to Tango, forty minutes, over."

"Roger, godspeed Seagulls! Out."

"Hey, Goldan?" Eisan called from this station to the pilots. "How's the weather out there?"

"Shit, is shit!" Came back the reply from the internal comms. "Damn goblins most probably be cozying in some damn cave!"

"Well," Eisan laughed as he said over the comms. "We are gonna help make them nice and warm!"

-----

Goblin City

"Ahhh choooooooo!" Riker the goblin sneezed. He rubbed his wet nose and sucked on the mucus that collected on his bony finger. "mmmHmmmmm~"

He looked up at the badly built roof and walls of the workshop shed and cursed. "Dumb builders need to be hang by their toes!"

He shivered again as a gust of wind blew in through the cracks of the shed. Rubbing his shoulders, that were covered layers of animal skins, he returned to his work, using a crude blade to plane a piece of wood into somewhat flat.

The base skeleton of a goblin raid ship laid out among him as he and dozens of other goblins worked on it. Riker dropped his tool as he took in a deep breath and sneezed again, and at the same time a massive explosion erupted somewhere outside that shook the work shed madly.

"Ha? Did I sneezed and something blew up?"

-----

Skies over Goblin City

"DROP DROP DROP!!!" The co-pilot/bomber yelled as he glued his eyes onto the bombsights at his station, his finger flipping down on the release switches. The underbelly hatches had swung open at the approach towards the city and upon the release triggered, the cradles holding the bombs opened in sequence and racks of bombs fell.

Each plane dropped their loads over the city on locations marked out by Intel to be the construction workshops for the goblin ships and where the docking slips of the completed ships were.

Blossoms of explosions followed behind the three planes as the black powder bombs on impact fuses hit the ground, sending massive clouds of black dirty smoke and fire up into the skies.

"Nice warm and toasty!"