War Core Wednesday. War Core 4, Chapter 37.

Chapter 37.

You have lost a forward base. Please note that at this stage of the battle, any critical areas you lose are deactivated and can’t be recaptured by either core.

That was about the only good part about losing the D’kahn forward base, at least Hssim couldn’t retake it from Hugh. It was also a bit ominous; it was apparent that the GCA was going to eventually strangle them of resources while at the same time ramping up the attacks. For now, Hugh was able to keep up with the production demands. The remaining forward bases were fully upgraded and well-defended. The troops there were fending off attacks with few losses.

Even with the loss of one forward base, Hugh was able to produce units to replace losses and stockpile some resources. Hssim and his Ssath forces didn’t make a second appearance, and his surviving scouts reported that the Ssath forward base and command post were also under constant attack. With the enemy distracted by the attacks, the scouts were able to get a closer look. The forward base was well protected with fixed defenses and a garrison even larger than Hugh’s, while the command post was bustling with defenders.

Hssim had been in the fight for longer than Hugh and other than the attack against Vilkrex, Hssim had likely avoided much in the way of losses. Sure, he had missed out on the opportunity to capture more critical areas, but he also didn’t have to send a large force to defend them as Hugh was forced to do. Time passed as Hugh continued to gather resources and build up his forces. He moved his command post to tier seven right when the one-hour timer expired and the GCA made another announcement.

The gates to the volcano have opened. Defeat the guardian inside to prove your worth. Whenever a guardian is engaged in combat with a core’s forces, it will be announced to all surviving cores. Once the guardian is defeated, one final challenge remains. The final challenge will be a single mech from a random current GCA member’s arsenal. Defeat who would be your new peer to prove your worth.

Hugh didn’t feel like he had the force he needed to battle whatever the guardian was. He assumed it was something nasty and would take more firepower than a small force of tier-seven mechs to defeat. He hunkered down and weathered the storm of attacks, slowly gathering resources to upgrade his tier seven units. Hours passed and Hugh climbed into higher tiers while the attacks against him became more and more powerful.

The AI-controlled units were still easy enough to defeat, especially with the gamers’ helping with the garrison force. It also helped that his own mechs were being continually upgraded into more and more powerful versions. It was now a constant stream of attacks. The forward bases held off the incoming attackers from the volcano to the north, but those from the other zones seemed to walk until they hit the beach then turned and marched toward either Hugh or Hssim’s command post, whichever was closer.

While the forward base prevented attacks from the north, his command post was still being hit from every other direction. The millipede nest was untouched so far, it was far enough north of the beach that the attackers heading toward Hugh’s command post from the next zone over didn’t spot them. When Hugh finally hit tier nine and finished upgrading his factories, a new announcement was made.

Attack waves will be doubled in an hour and every hour after that. Resource gathering rates have been cut by 10% and then by an additional 10% every hour. Each core will now occupy its avatar form to finish the battle. Should your command post be destroyed, all automated attackers will target your avatar as their new objective. Only victory or the destruction of your avatar will end the battle for you. Fight hard to prove worthy of membership in the GCA.

Inside the command post, Hugh’s avatar began construction. It didn’t look like he had a choice and was going to be forced to fight directly. He watched as the avatar was built, it resembled a heavy assault infantry mech like his soldiers piloted, but it definitely wasn’t going to be a standard model. His mech was a bit oversized, about 20% larger than the standard unit and its extra bulk made it look more formidable.

Armament consisted of twin, short-barreled 20mm cannons for one arm. The other arm featured a minigun of .30 caliber and there was a mortar tube mounted on his back that also doubled as a rapid-fire grenade launcher at shorter ranges Over each shoulder was a dual-purpose anti-armor, anti-air rocket launcher. His mech had an integrated shield generator that seemed rather powerful and recharged quickly.

The armor on his avatar was lightweight, but plentiful, making him hard to kill. The downside was that the only way he could repair his avatar was a single micro drone that was attached to the back of his mech. The normal construction drones couldn’t help. Once his avatar was completed and Hugh was loaded into it, that was his ride for the rest of the battle.

Once complete, Hugh could feel his consciousness transfer into the mech and despite never piloting this particular model before, it was smooth as glass to operate. He tested the weapons and targeting systems and they performed perfectly. Hugh may not have been a combat veteran like most of his pod operators, but he was certain he could give any of them a run for their money in this mech. Speed was on par with a light mech and he even had a pair of blades that extended from his arms if things needed to get up close and personal.

“I like the new ride, Hugh, but what are your plans?” Maddison asked. He thought about it for a moment, trying to decide if it was the right time to go on the offensive. Hssim wasn’t going to wait and would strike at the guardian soon, could he afford to let the Ssath have the jump on him, or should he just go all out for the win?

“What’s everyone’s opinion?” Hugh asked. If there ever was a time for input from his team, it was now.

“We’re only going to get weaker as the battle progresses, with resources waning, we’ll eventually be whittled away by the automated attacks,” Tran said.

“We just hit tier nine, and we should be able to hold off the attacks long enough to fully upgrade for this tier. Let’s max out our mechs and bring everything that can move to the fight,” Cartwright said.

“I agree with Cartwright, I think we need to upgrade and then go,” Zacharias said.

“Give me a battleship with all the upgrades and I think we can handle this guardian,” Nix said.

“Upgrades, then fight is my vote,” Maddison offered.

“Okay, we’ll upgrade what we can, then move out. While I get upgrades running, you guys hold the fort. Avoid losses among the pod-controlled mechs if at all possible. We can’t take the garrison troops with us, so use them,” Hugh ordered. Their path was set, the last stage of Hugh’s last battle was about to commence.

He ignored the upgrades for the command post, they were going to push forward with all his units, and wasting resources to improve the command post defenses or resource-gathering efficiency wasn’t going to help at this point. There was one thing under the command post upgrades that applied to his avatar. He could spend 250 resources to create five drones to support his mech. Each drone was a small hovercraft with a submachinegun and a light shield generator. They would hover around Hugh, protecting him from fire, or he could just send them out to attack. That upgrade made it first on the list, though he was a bit disappointed that there was no option for more repair drones.

For the armory at the barracks, Hugh was able to add a similar drone to his tier nine infantry. He also unlocked a shield that could be mounted on one arm. The shield was not only a large armored plate, but it also generated a light energy field to dissipate laser and plasma fire. At tier nine, his assault infantry were already impressive. Each mech had a 20mm cannon on one arm, a machinegun on the other, and a grenade launcher over one shoulder. The other shoulder mounted a single dual-purpose rocket like the pair on Hugh’s avatar.

The infantry mechs looked bulkier due to their greatly increased armor, and while it did slow them a bit, the soldiers piloting them preferred the armor to a bit more agility. As the drones made the rounds to upgrade his units, the increased firepower had an immediate effect, holding back the waves of attackers and buying him more time.

His light mechs were now the M24 Chaffee which featured the same 75mm main gun that his M4 main battle mechs had mounted. With a single .50 caliber machinegun and two .30 caliber weapons, the light mech was not only fast, but really packed a punch. In addition to smoke grenades to conceal his forces, the mechs had an upgrade for a stealth unit available. Hugh didn’t feel that either upgrade would be necessary for the coming brawl, so he skipped both light mech upgrades to save resources.

For his light mechs, he also had the option to create variants with either anti-air or fire support specializations. The anti-air version was nice, with a dual-mounted 20mm cannon that had decent range and firepower against what were typically more lightly armored air mechs. He opted to not go with the fire support variant since it only mounted an 81mm mortar with limited range, but he did place an order for several of the anti-air mechs.

His main battle mechs were now the powerful M48 Patton with an upgraded 90mm main gun from the Pershing. Armor was greatly enhanced and the mech now featured a shield projector to grant further protection. Two .50 caliber machineguns and a single .30 caliber were mounted as secondary weapons. A point defense system was also installed, which fired light caliber rounds from several points around the mech to destroy incoming missiles or rockets. The system would also shred light mechs that tried to close into melee range.

The main battle mechs also had the option of an anti-air and fire support variant. For the anti-air variant, it mounted quad 20mm guns and had the other benefits of the main battle mech. Hugh figured the faster construction times and cheaper cost of the light mechs made them better suited to the anti-air role, not to mention their speed on the battlefield allowed them to better respond to threats. One in ten light mechs were converted to the new air defense variant, and the drones got to work.

For the fire support variant, the main battle mechs were a good choice. They mounted a 155mm cannon that had solid range and packed a huge punch. The mechs equipped as fire support variants lost the shielding and all but one secondary weapon, but Hugh wanted some extra long-range firepower in case something happened to the battleship. Hugh only opted to convert a pair of the main battle mechs at his forward bases to the new artillery variant and had four of the mechs at the command post changed over as well.

There were two upgrades available for the main battle mechs. The first was a reactive armor plating upgrade that added explosive plates to dissipate the force of incoming fire. Single-use items, the plates would protect the mech from a powerful blow, but only for the first hit, after that, the reactive plate protecting that section of armor was gone. For the second upgrade, the 90mm main gun was replaced with a more powerful 105mm cannon. Hugh placed both upgrades in the queue, they would give his main battle mechs more survivability and a bigger punch.

Hugh’s air mechs were now the A-1 Skyraider. The mech was larger than the previous fighter and had a quartet of 20mm cannons for its main firepower. It had six external hardpoints for any combination of 250lb bombs or unguided rockets, making it deadly against just about any foe. For his upgrades, Hugh had the option of replacing two of the bomb hardpoints with an additional pair of 20mm gun pods. The second upgrade was a light shield unit to increase survivability.

The last mechs for consideration were the ships. Tier nine had unlocked battleships and not only were they extremely powerful, but they also cost 2000 resources for a single mech. Featuring nine 16inch main guns, six 5inch secondary guns, six twin-40mm cannons, ten 20mm cannons, and twelve tomahawk missiles, it had the most firepower of any mech on the battlefield. The ship was more heavily armored than his main battle mechs and had several shields to offer additional protection. The sole upgrade was for an improved land walking system to boost its ground speed by 30%, something the ponderous mech would definitely need. Hugh could only order one battleship, and it would take a bit to build up the resources to produce it.

“I’m going to stop building new units until we can get all the upgrades completed. Once everyone is upgraded and Admiral Nix has his battleship, we go for the guardian,” Hugh said.

“We’re ready when you are Hugh,” Tran told him. The attacks continued as the resources went into all the new research options. Once they were done, the battleship started construction, but it was going to take a while. As they waited, Hugh could see his resource inflow rate decrease as the system stifled both cores. The debris fields were also nearly picked over so staying put any longer than necessary would be a mistake.

“How do you want to handle the order of march?” Nix asked.

“Here’s what I’m thinking. As we leave here, the forces holding the serpent forward base will join with the ones at our forward base. They will move forward toward the north, securing the entry to the volcano and holding back the attackers coming from that direction. The forces protecting the millipede nest will join us and we’ll move to link up with your northern group. Once everyone is assembled, we’ll make our attack on the guardian,” Hugh said.

Most of their attackers were now coming in from the east and west as they marched unopposed through the zones with no cores and then turned toward Hugh or Hssim’s command post. Sea mechs and the occasional air mech squadron came from the water to the south, the enemy reinforced by the sea and air units meant to attack the missing cores. Zacharias and his air mech supported the pair of destroyers and a handful of patrol boats holding off an attack from the sea.

Without his naval force, the command post would be overrun quickly. Hugh decided to leave the destroyers and remaining patrol boats to supplement the defenses at the command post. Too lightly armored, the destroyers would probably be taken out early in the fight, and having them here would delay the enemy coming up behind their attack.

The forward base in Hugh’s zone only had to deal with the mechs coming from the north, making things a bit more manageable for them. Once Hugh’s forces moved north and secure the entrance to the guardian, the only threat his forward base would face would be the forces moving toward his avatar once the command post fell. Between the automated defenders at the command post and the ones at the forward base, they could hopefully provide Hugh with enough time to complete his mission before being overrun.

“Sir, I have a suggestion,” the gamer, Derek, said.

“What is it?” Nix asked. The gamers had earned the respect of the officers, soldiers, sailors, and marines throughout the battle. It was shown in Nix’s calm reply to the gamer who had interrupted the main command channel.

“Well, the millipede nest isn’t being attacked, we need to move all of them to the command post to assist the defense there. I can get the millipedes to start ferrying over the eggs that are ready to be used and as your force leaves the command post, we can seed them behind you to slow down any enemy forces,” Derek said.

“That’s smart, get it done, Derek,” Hugh said. Shifting his view to the millipede nest, he could see there were over sixty of the monsters now and a huge pile of eggs waiting to be distributed.

Drones, when not working on other projects had been hauling eggs to the forward bases to improve their defenses, and the air mechs were doing the same, dropping them from their bomb racks to reinforce the defenses. With the air mechs engaged in assisting his fleet, the millipedes took over the job, directed by the gamers. They would each gather two or three eggs, move down the tunnel with the speed boost then scatter them around the command post.

With his construction drones mostly out of work, Hugh added them to the process, using the millipedes with their speed boost in the tunnel to ferry the eggs over while the drones distributed them. The mammoth queen could have carried a dozen eggs at once, but she could only lay new eggs while inside the hive, so they kept her there for now. Once Hugh’s army left the command post, she would move to join the rest of the millipedes defending the command post and delay its fall.

“Tran, pull in all your scouts, and have them head toward our forward base,” Hugh ordered. He had committed over fifty infantry mechs to scouting duty, but many had been caught by Ssath scouts in the minor skirmishes breaking out all over the battlefield. There were over thirty still in action and most of them were in lower-tier mechs. If they could make it back to the forward base, they could be upgraded into tier nine mechs and have any damage repaired before they joined the final push.

Everything was ready and Hugh was only waiting on Nix’s battleship to be finished.