"OPEN FIRE!"
"huuummmmmmm Tut Tut Tut Tut Tut Tut Tut Tut Tut Tut…"
The electrical hum of high voltage circuits was followed by quiet wooshing sounds and solid metallic thuds. There were no loud gunshots due to the soldiers using their E-Mag weapons. It was even quieter than the best suppressors for traditional gunpowder weapons.
Even with the 'open fire' order, none of the soldiers fired wantonly. The small size of the Western Nation's military actually improved discipline and inter-team coordination. The fewer the people, the more resources each person got to train with and the more likely they would work with people they already knew.
The soldiers maintained their firing discipline. Single shots or three round bursts conserved ammunition. The left, right and center teams each had their own firing lane that crossed in the center of the goblins. There was no where for the goblins to hide except behind the bodies of their fallen.
The goblins were unable to charge towards the soldiers at all. The goblins had no idea what weapons the humans even used. They were almost completely silent and the projectiles moved too fast for them to see. All they knew was that the one human shouted something and then they were massacred.
Of the hundred or so goblins and a handful of boars, all of the boars and almost all of the goblins were killed within a minute of the humans' concentrated fire. The only goblins that managed to survive were those quick enough to hide behind their comrades.
After seeing no more movement, the soldiers stopped firing. The few surviving goblins took the chance to dart back into the portal. A few soldiers shot at the retreating goblins, managing to take out another, but some of them still managed to retreat.
Whisper had the best eyes in Mateo's fireteam. Seeing the retreating goblins he quietly reported to Mateo.
Whisper held up three fingers then pointed towards the portal. Three goblins had managed to retreat.
Realizing what Whisper had communicated, his face turned into a grimace. There was no way he would let his men enter the portal to chase after them.
If there were more goblins on the other side, they would surely regroup and try to plan some sort of counter attack. That is, unless they decided they'd rather stay on their side of the portal. Mateo had a feeling they wouldn't, however.
They would just have to plan to deal with the reinforcements. He could only hope the other three teams will have an easier time with their continuous events.
Seeing that the goblins were unlikely to return quickly, Mateo ran to Olivia who was commanding the center firing position.
"Status?" He asked when he got there.
"Good for now," she replied.
Mateo couldn't analyze her face to know if she was telling the truth. The fully enclosed combat helmet each marine wore would become opaque in combat situations. The helmet looked almost exactly like the Mjolnir armor's helmet from the old Halo franchise.
The helmet only lacked the super high tech. It contained a comms system, which was currently useless due to the portal's interference, an atmospheric filter and oxygen canister hookup and a fully integrated heads up display (HUD). If needed, it even had night vision or infrared cameras for tactical use.
"Judging by the way those goblins ran away, they likely have reinforcements on the other side of the portal," Mateo deduced to Olivia. "We should prepare to encounter tougher enemies. I'd bet that was only a scouting force just now."
"I concur," Olivia responded. "I'll get my teams to setup some vehicle mounted and stationary weapon emplacements."
"Make sure not to have too many stationary emplacements. We still have no idea what the reinforcements are composed of. I don't want to get ready for a shootout only to have to retreat and leave all the weapons behind."
"You think those goblins have something that terrifying?" She asked him. From what she saw, clothes were uncommon let alone armor.
She doubted the goblins had the intelligence to be any more of a threat than what they just saw. Especially since the portal seemed to only be able to transport so many enemies so quickly. They'd just be able to shoot them down the moment they appeared. Seeing Olivia's doubt, Mateo spoke his mind.
"The goblins were clearly able to domesticate those boars as cavalry. Perhaps the riders weren't that smart, but they clearly had someone with real intelligence behind them. That's who I'm worried about."
"Hmm. I see," Olivia responded in thought. "I'll get my men to dig in." The two of them fell silent in thought.
"Oh! I have an idea," Olivia said after a few seconds. "If you decide we need to retreat, shoot a red flare at the portal. I'd be willing to bet those goblins will be too stupid realize it's harmless. Should give us the opening to retreat."
"This is why I love you. Always thinking outside of the box." Hearing that, Olivia punched him in the shoulder before quickly walking away grumbling. Even though Mateo couldn't see her face, he knew she was blushing.
The marines quickly got to work digging in. The rest stayed on watch of the portal. Who knew how long it would take for the goblins to regroup on the other side.
The marines took some 'creativeliberties' in how they prepared. One duo made a machine gun nest on top the roof of the LATT. They drilled some holes in the armor to add attachment points that they could strap themselves to. They had clearly watched some Mad Max movies recently and took some inspiration.
A full squad made the bed of the LMTV into a fully functional firing point, completely replacing the left flank's ground firing position. The center position also had a stationary weapon emplacement on the ground. They expected the center to receive the most enemies.
Mateo's team had little to do. Their LATV already had a roof mounted gunpowder 50. cal machine gun. Therefore, they were on watch while the other teams made their modifications and preparations.
Mateo also sent up a green flare to communicate with the comms station that they were ok. He received four flares in the distance: two green and two yellow. One of the yellow flares was barely visible due to the smog in the way. He knew that one of the green flares was the other LATT carrying the non-combatants back to the sub-base. Their flare was still close to them.
He was confused about the other three. The three flares came from only two locations. That meant the comms station had split up. He didn't know why they had done that. He knew the comms station had received orders to ensure a connection to Command. They were to retreat until they reestablished connection.
The far yellow flare was definitely the group that left to reach command. The yellow flare had been fired between the comms station and the direction of the sub-base meaning they hadn't reached it yet.
The green and yellow flare, presumably fired from the group that stayed, did not came from the original location of the sub-base. It had moved to fall into line between the portal's location and the sub-base.
The group that left to reestablish connection must've taken the LMTV stranding those who stayed. He guessed that the group who stayed had moved into line so that they could be picked up if they retreated. He judged that the LATT with the non-combatants, including the scientists, that left during the event haven't reached the comms group who stayed yet.
Reaching this point, he understood half the situation. What he didn't know was why the comms station group that left had sent up a yellow flare. Had they still not moved far enough away to reach Command? Had they encountered some other issue? He didn't know.
Why had the other group sent up two flares? Why one green and one yellow? The green had been sent first and straight up. The yellow had been towards the portals direction. Does that mean that they are ok? Does that mean they were ok and now they're experiencing an issue? Is it the same issue as the group that split off or a different one? He didn't know.
The reconnecting team that was moving to sub-base KenMarco was about to move out of viewing range. They wouldn't be able to communicate even if they did reestablish signal with Command. Is that the reason the other group stayed behind? To act as a relay? Did they expect the interference range to be so large? If the yellow they sent up wasn't their situation but actually a relay from the signal group, then that would make sense why they sent two flares so quickly. It would also make sense why they fired the yellow towards them.
Mateo felt that he had grasped enough of the situation to work with it.
Within a half hour, the marines had finished most of their preparations. Mateo and his squad had watched the portal and noticed no anomalies.
With everything done, they could only wait. He wanted to send a team to go and look over the bodies of the dead goblins. He wanted them to inspect the boars, too. Even though they were skinny for a boar, they still had plenty of meat on them.
Just looking at them and thinking about meat was enough for most of the men there to start salivating. Meat had been completely removed from everyone's diet since the ecological collapse.
Animals were simply too resource intensive to raise. Except for the mutated roaches and rats, most other animals had gone extinct anyway. You couldn't even eat the rats or roaches for fear of dying right after.
If the boars were safe to eat, then they would be the worlds biggest delicacy. That is no exaggeration either. It had been 15 years of the same dry biscuit and vegetable soup.
Mateo desperately wanted to send a team to recover the boars to see if he could eat them, but he knew better. This was not the situation where he could get careless. He figured that if the portal went away, then he could have the marines grab them.
It was a good thing he hadn't acted on his urges, because almost immediately after, the portal shifted again.
Unlike the green legs the soldiers expected, a brown wood 'thing' was all they could see. Slowly it continued moving out of the portal and the soldiers could see what it was. The wooden 'thing' was actually a four foot tall wooden tower shield held up by three or four goblins.
The shield was hastily fastened together with fiber ropes. There were small holes between the thick wood branches. The holes were large enough for the soldiers with their zoomed in cameras see what was behind them, but small enough that it was basically impossible to shoot through.
Out of everyone present, probably only Whisper had a chance of shooting through the holes on purpose. Mateo looked over at Whisper to see his opinion only to receive a shrug. Without the right weapons, even Whisper couldn't shoot through the holes consistently.
It seemed Mateo was right to worry about the potentially smart goblins. The shields were definitely designed to protect the goblins from the mysterious weapons of the humans.
The PEC weapons they had, while weaker than the other weapons they had, were still about as powerful as the weapons from the 2020's. With enough fire, the shields would be destroyed. It would just take a lot more ammo than Mateo wanted to use.
It was going to be a long battle if the goblins were able to adapt this quickly after each encounter.