War Core 4, Chapter 40.

Chapter 40.

Hugh activated the Turret swarm and waited for them to appear. The reward perk was a bit of a dice roll, and he was supposed to get between four and twenty turrets. Fourteen turrets popped up from the floor, and Hugh was relieved that he had rolled closer to the max than the minimum this time. He was a bit uncertain about what type of turrets they would be. The reward description mentioned they would match the tier of his command post, but with it destroyed, would they be based on tier nine power or something like a weak default unit?

He wasn’t disappointed, the fourteen turrets rose from the floor of the arena in a scattered pattern around Hssim’s avatar. Thirteen of them mounted twin-20mm cannons that started firing immediately. One was an upgraded unit with a beam weapon that was only slightly weaker than the ones the guardian had been using. The only disappointment was that Hugh couldn’t select targets and the turrets seemed to target a nearby hostile unit at random. Four, including the beam weapon, focused on the guardian, while all but five of the others started blasting apart other Ssath mechs.

The five turrets that targeted Hssim blasted through the remaining shields of the annihilator mech and started tearing into the armor to get at the delicate machinery below. Hssim’s reaction was quick, and he targeted the turrets nearest him with all the impressive firepower that the annihilator brought to the battle. The turrets targeting Hssim were wiped out in less than ten seconds, but those few seconds had seen over a hundred of the 20mm cannon shells hit the mech.

One leg of the annihilator was torn off and the rest of the body was pockmarked with cannon hits. The mech collapsed to the ground and came apart as the various mechs that formed the unit began to separate. Hssim’s heavy mech emerged from the pile, followed by a damaged medium mech and two light mechs. Hssim’s mech had cracked armor on one side and a bent barrel on one of the cannons peeking over the heavy mech’s shoulders. He had reduced Hssim’s firepower and taken out his shield, but the Ssath leader was still very much in the fight.

Hssim maintained his position, smart enough not to move closer to any of the still active turrets. The Ssath forces were tearing into the last of the turrets, but their surprise appearance had done a number on the Ssath units, mostly among the infantry and light mechs who couldn’t stand up to more than one or two hits before being destroyed.

One-on-one, Hugh had no chance to beat Hssim, so he would need to rely on his troops to do at least part of the heavy lifting. Taking stock of the forces left to him, Hugh estimated that he had about 200 infantry, 8 light mechs, and 18 main battle mechs left in the fight. Of his main battle mechs, two were artillery variants and none of the air mechs or ships were left.

Over on the Ssath side of the battlefield, there were three annihilators still in operation, all three of which were covering the entrance to the arena. Hssim’s infantry outnumbered Hugh’s units with just over 300 still in the fight. As far as light mechs, the Ssath still had over twenty units and a similar number of medium mechs. A half dozen heavy mechs, not including Hssim’s avatar were still fighting. Just as with Hugh’s army, Hssim no longer had any air mechs, and whatever ship mechs he had built, had never appeared in the fight.

The guardian was almost destroyed, and of the six tentacle weapons still operational, four were targeting the Ssath. Hugh’s main battle mechs were sending long-range fire at the Ssath, while the other mechs tore into the guardian. Better at ranged combat, Hugh’s forces were mostly spread out near the entrance, keeping as much distance between themselves and the guardian as possible. The Ssath were more up close and personal in their fighting style leaving the bulk of their troops in melee with the behemoth guardian. Only Hssim and a small force of guards stood back, as well as the mechs holding the entrance.

“Everyone target a Ssath unit if you can, hold fire on anything other than the tentacles targeting us. That thing is doing more damage to Hssim than it is to us, let’s not interrupt,”: Hugh ordered.

Hssim must have realized the same thing, pulling an annihilator from the defense of the entrance to put down the badly damaged guardian before it did too much damage to his remaining forces. A pair of powerful beams from the annihilator burned deep into the guardian causing sparks and flame to erupt from the breaches in its armor. Beams from the three tentacles still operating on the Ssath side of the guardian burned into the annihilator, with one claw able to reach it directly and cut into the Ssath mech’s shoulder, destroying its long-range firepower and bringing down the powerful mech even as the guardian finally failed.

A fresh series of explosions and plasma flame erupted from the guardian as it was destroyed. With little warning, only a fraction of the Ssath mechs that had been engaged in melee were able to escape undamaged. The blast had ended the guardian but had also cut Hssim’s forces down enough where the fight was even. Both cores were out of tricks and it was going to come down to the skills of the pod operators as well as any advantage Hugh and the commanders could eke out of their units.

The guardian has been destroyed. Only one core can emerge victorious. Defeat your enemy and test yourself against the final challenge.

“Hit them with everything you’ve got, hold nothing in reserve,” Tran ordered. Infantry mechs who had been holding anti-armor rockets or grenades in reserve fired them at their designated targets. Maddison and the final gamer at the serpent command post helped to highlight and select targets for various units. The soldiers operating their mechs were comfortable working with the gamers by this point and followed their advice, helping them all to be the most efficient killers of giant metal dino mechs that they possibly could be.

“Light mechs, cover Hugh. Main battle mechs, focus on Hssim if he shows himself, or the remaining annihilators if you have a shot,” Cartwright ordered.

The last few light mechs stomped over to where Hugh was fighting, using their bodies to block incoming fire as they sacrificed themselves to buy him a few more minutes. Hugh was actively involved, using his cannon to tear into the Ssath medium and light mechs who were charging across the arena toward Hugh. Missiles streaked from Hugh’s mech, slamming into the nearest Ssath attackers. One by one the light mechs protecting him fell, and assault infantry steeped in and plugged the gap.

Infantry fell like dominos under the Ssath charge toward Hugh, a charge that now encompassed most of Hssim’s army. They were going for a quick kill, trying to take Hugh out of the battle regardless of losses. His commanders responded, shifting all their units to cover Hugh, turning their side of the arena into a meatgrinder of firepower for the Ssath units. Despite their efforts, Hugh was taking hit after hit from the incoming fire. Pain bloomed over him as one leg was blasted off and his avatar fell to the rocky floor of the arena. Going prone granted him a brief reprieve, but the cannon from an annihilator blasted through the troops screening Hugh and melted the minigun on his left arm.

Cartwright led a countercharge with all eight of his remaining medium mechs and all the forces holding the arena entrance. They focused their fire on Hssim, who only had his small honor guard and the final, battered but still formidable, annihilator protecting him. The small screen of Ssath infantry and light mechs holding the arena entrance moved to stop Cartwright, allowing automated units to march into the arena from the Ssath side as well as from Hugh’s entrance.

Your final forward base has been destroyed.

With the fall of the forward base, the last of the gamers, and Maddison were out of the fight. An anti-armor rocket was sheared off Hugh’s shoulder, eliciting a fresh wave of pain. The infantry in front of Hugh were fighting like demons, their arm-mounted guns mowed down the horde of Ssath. When the Ssath reached melee range, they began to tear into the human infantry mechs. Not giving an inch, the human troops met them with blades and gunfire, refusing to go down easily. The Ssath held the advantage in melee, but Hugh had never seen the fight so close. Soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division were giving their all, refusing to die without taking at least one more Ssath with them.

“Hugh, we’re not enough to take out Hssim, but he’s going to be hurting by the time we’re done with him. Tran, it’s up to your boys to finish the job,” Cartwright said. Hugh could see the main battle mech that Cartwright was operating going toe to toe with Hssim’s heavy mech. Hssim had several breaches in his armor, and almost all of his secondary guns had been taken out. Cartwright’s mech had no main gun and was hosing Hssim down with .50 caliber rounds, and despite the damage they were doing, it wasn’t adding up fast enough.

All the annihilators were down, Cartwright’s team had seen to that, but Hssim still had one of the main guns on his heavy mech operational and was targeting it at the final M48 piloted by Cartwright. A stream of .50 caliber rounds managed to hit the cannon just as it fired. The blast blew the final main gun off Hssim’s mech, but the shot he fired turned Cartwright’s main battle mech into a pile of smoking parts. The command line was silent, it was just Hugh and Tran now.

An enemy light mech broke through the cordon of infantry and leaped onto Hugh’s avatar. He tried to scramble back and avoid it, but with one leg missing, it was hard to maneuver. As the mech landed, Hugh managed to get his 20mm guns up and firing. Shells pierced the light armor of the Ssath mech hammering deep into its body even as the clawed foot impacted with Hugh’s avatar. Fresh waves of pain threatened to overpower him, but Hugh had been through this before. To succumb to the pain was to die, and if he died, humanity was doomed. Hugh fought through the pain, continuing to fire at the Ssath mech as it shredded the armor of his avatar with its death throes.

A pair of infantry mechs grabbed Hugh and dragged him away from the shattered light mech that had almost taken his life. His view of the battlefield cleared as the soldiers dragging him kept going, moving toward the remains of the guardian in the center of the arena. Hugh could see it now, a panel in the floor had slid open and when he scanned it, he was informed it was a lift to the final challenge.

“Hugh, we’ll clear a path, but you need to get on that lift,” Tran said. A few Ssath infantry were remaining near Hugh’s mech, but they were tied up in deadly combat with the last of Hugh’s forces.

Automated units poured into each entrance, and it took a moment for Hugh to spot Hssim’s avatar. Hssim and a handful of damaged mechs were moving toward the same lift that Hugh was heading toward. At first, he thought they were fighting among themselves as his pain-addled mind failed to realize that there were automated units among the Ssath. Hssim was having a hard time extricating himself from the fight. Cartwright had held Hssim’s focus long enough for the GCA to do a lot of the work of killing the Ssath for him.

The real threat to Hugh right at his minute was the number of automated troops on his side of the battlefield. As soon as the troops finished off the last of the Ssath, they moved to block the incoming attack. A couple of lucky rifle rounds hit his avatar and Hugh noted that his functionality was down to 27%. He raised his 20mm cannons to return fire, but with the first shot, a partially bent barrel exploded, dropping his functionality down to 25%. The other barrel still worked so Hugh went to work downing incoming automated attackers.

He was almost to the lift, when a cannon round from the automated attackers exploded nearby, blasting one of the infantry that had been dragging him and damaging the other. Looking around, Hugh could only see twenty or so infantry still in the fight, and the damaged mech next to him was still trying to drag Hugh to the lift. A spray of rifle-caliber plasma rounds hit the damaged mech that was assisting Hugh, knocking him off his feet. The pilot of the mech managed to drag the arm holding his light machinegun into position and fire toward the fallen guardian.

It was Hssim, stumbling forward in his heavy mech avatar. Hugh was in bad shape, and it looked like Hssim wasn’t much better. The spray of machinegun fire zeroed in a pair of rifles mounted on the side of the head on Hssim’s avatar. One rifle was sheared off and the other met a similar fate, but not until its return barrage took out the damaged mech next to Hugh.

Hssim moved slowly, barely remaining upright as one leg dragged uselessly behind him. Despite the damage to his mech, Hssim was still mobile, which was more than Hugh could say for himself. With only one damaged leg and one arm, Hugh started dragging himself to the lift. He had a head start on Hssim, but the Ssath avatar was faster. It was going to be close. As they closed in, Hugh received a comm request from Hssim. With nothing to lose, he answered.

“Foolish human, neither of us is going to be able to face the final guardian. You have doomed us all,” Hssim taunted.

“You sure talk a lot for someone that caused this problem by turning on your allies,” Hugh taunted. Hssim was prone to anger and if he could get him riled up, maybe he could get the Ssath to make a mistake. His thoughts were jolted by another nearby blast, dropping his functionality to 19%. Hssim was also taking occasional fire, as the final remnants of both their armies tried to hold off the attackers long enough for their avatars to reach the lift.

“The Ssath are supreme, and we do not work with inferior species, we consume them. You were merely a means to an end and while I may not be able to defeat the guardian in my current state, I shall at least have the pleasure of rending you apart once more. I hope it gives you as much pain as you felt when I consumed your lowly human form back aboard the station.” They were both close to the lift, but Hssim was pulling into the lead.

“Before you get too excited about tearing apart my avatar, you need to remember something very important about humanity in general, and my people in particular,” Hugh said as he forced himself to crawl forward. The last of the troops on both sides were falling as the automated forces overwhelmed them.

“And what is that frail human? Is this some last effort to extend your useless life for a few more moments by engaging me in conversation? What do I care about some quirk of your feeble species? Hssim asked.

“No, this is no effort to extend my life, I just wanted to remind you that humans, and my people in particular, love guns, and despite the condition that my avatar is in, one of my guns still works,” Hugh said as he trigged the battered 20mm cannon on his arm.

Rounds slammed into Hssim, Hugh first targeting the damaged leg to cause the heavy mech to collapse. Once that was done, he targeted the remaining leg, severing it. Then, he blasted off both arms, leaving Hssim functional but unable to move in any way. Hugh crawled the last few yards to the lift, activating it as soon as he was aboard, his mech down to 11% as more fire from the automated forces started to hit his mech, their accuracy improving as they closed in. As the lift started to descend, the fire directed at Hugh’s mech ceased as he broke the line of sight with the attackers.

“You have won nothing with your antics. Ride your lift, human, ride it to your death. I take great pleasure that your vile species…” Hssim started to say before the automated forces finished him off.

You are the only core remaining in the battle. Automated forces are now disabled. Destroy the final guardian to attain membership in the GCA.