War Core 4, Chapter 35.

Chapter 35.

Hugh’s port facility hit tier six soon after the battle at Dalven’s command post ended. They had unlocked destroyers, and Admiral Nix wanted at least a few constructed. At 500 resources each, the destroyers would have to wait until Hugh hit the final upgrade for each of the forward bases. With the battle now being waged against the Ssath, he needed to reinforce each if wanted to keep the resources flowing. Losses to his troops were also being built, but there was the question of how much was enough.

“Any thoughts on troop levels at the forward bases?” Hugh asked his command team.

“More infantry and some support weapons would be nice. Even a few mortars or artillery would help. We need some bigger weapons to deal with the Ssath medium and heavy mechs, but parking a main battle mech in the forward base robs us of our mobile firepower,” Cartwright said.

“I agree, my infantry once dug into the trenches are hard to dislodge. Just get me something to help them with the heavier mechs and we’ll be good,” Tran said.

“With the gamers helping out on the garrison troops, I think we can bolster the infantry and air mech forces and leave the light and main battle mechs for our offensive punch. Let’s bump the infantry count to a hundred and the air mechs to twenty at each forward base. The light and main battle mechs stationed there will remain at their current numbers,” Hugh decided.

“How about some turrets and minefields?” Maddison asked.

“It’s resource and time intensive, but I can see the benefit. Let’s go with four turrets at each base and a minefield just outside the trenches. If we have time, we can expand to a second minefield out in no man's land and then one right inside the jungle line. The final upgrade to the forward bases might even give us something new to work with,” Hugh said.

“What about a larger air force? This battleground is huge, and we may need to respond quickly across it,” Zacharias added.

“Agreed, we’ll add more to the main army. With them stationed here at the command post, they should be able to reach every forward base in time to help out,” Hugh said.

The next question was how large of an army to make at the command post. In the end, they decided on a force of two full infantry companies, totaling 500 mechs. To support them were ten light mechs, and a full fifty main battle and air mechs. As Hugh dug into upgrades for each of the factories, there might be a few support units added to the mix, but for now, he would have a force capable of punching through the Ssath lines and doing some real damage, while also being able to defend against the inevitable waves of attackers.

It was all a shot in the dark until they finally had eyes on the Ssath force to determine exactly what they were up against. Twenty infantry were scouting around the island to the east and west. As they passed through each zone, he would get a look at whether Hssim had taken control of more resource-gathering locations than Hugh. He had eyes on four of the eight zones and held three forward bases and the millipede nest. The Ssath could potentially control four forward bases and four special areas like the millipede nest. It seemed unlikely to Hugh that Hssim had secured them all, but he would have to consider the possibility until the scouts informed him otherwise.

You have upgraded a forward base to a tier 3 firebase. The supply of resources naturally produced by this location has increased and the gathering rate has improved by 25%. Please note that despite the increase in reserves, the resources of this location are finite and will be exhausted at some point.

Additional defenses will be constructed shortly, and new upgrade options are available in the guard post and listening post.

Good, the forward base in his territory was upgraded and the one in the serpent zone was almost ready as well. The forward base in the D’kahn zone was still being repaired, but once the repairs were complete, it would be eligible for an upgrade as well. Hugh jumped into the guard post and checked out the upgrades as the small AI-controlled construction drone squad worked on the new defenses. The system hadn’t told him exactly what the new defenses were, he supposed he would just have to wait and see.

Guard post upgrades:

1. Mortar teams. This upgrade will cause the guard post to occasionally produce mortar teams to support your defense. A central area of the firebase has been set aside for mortar pits. Once fully occupied, the mortar pits will slowly evolve into more powerful weapons. The cost for this upgrade is 100 resources.

2. Heavy machinegun teams. Upgrade your machinegun teams to the .50 caliber heavy machinegun. This upgrade requires 75 resources to unlock.

Listening post upgrades:

1. Enhanced scanners. This upgrade improves the scanners on the listening post to a much more powerful version. You will now have notification of nearby threats as well as the numbers and types of mechs approaching the firebase. Please note that some units may be naturally resistant to sensors or possess cloaking abilities to resist or nullify your scans. The cost for this upgrade is 50 resources.

2. Tracking drones. This upgrade builds a series of tiny tracking drones that will disperse into the area around your firebase. These drones will seek out and bond to enemy units, transmitting intel from the area around the drone to your command post even if the firebase is destroyed. The cost for this upgrade is 50 resources.

It was going to be a total of 275 resources to unlock everything, but once upgraded, they could potentially provide far more value over time. Hugh added them to the queue for each forward base, but at a lower priority than unit construction or the unit upgrades from his factories. With all his factories upgraded to tier six, Hugh got started on unit upgrades.

Barracks armory upgrades:

1. Grenade launcher. This upgrade adds a grenade launcher under the barrel of the light machinegun. The launcher holds only a single grenade, but it can fire at a greater distance. Reloads will be produced by the launcher, but it takes some time to do so. This upgrade requires 75 resources to unlock.

2.  Improved melee. This upgrade installs an upgraded melee weapon on each infantry mech. The melee weapon will be infused with plasma and burn quickly through most armor types. For AI-controlled mechs, a default bayonet will be selected, but for pod-controlled mechs, the operator may choose from a variety of weapons to suit their preference. The cost for this upgrade is 75 resources.

Light mech factory machine shop upgrades.

1. Stealth Pack. This upgrade coats the mech in a detection-resistant layer, making it very difficult to spot when standing still. When applied, the stealth pack will also reduce the accuracy of incoming fire by 10%. This upgrade requires 75 resources to unlock.

2. Interior spall liner. This flexible armored material is mounted inside the mech to add additional protection for critical machinery. It proves an additional 5% protection against all types of damage, as well as a 10% reduction to damage against critical areas of the mech. Using lightweight materials, this upgrade does not degrade mech speed or maneuverability. The cost for this upgrade is 75 resources.

Main battle mech forge upgrades:

1. Fire support variants. This upgrade unlocks the construction of fire support vehicles at your main battle mech factory. At this tier, you will have access to an artillery mech and an anti-air-focused mech. The cost for this upgrade is 200 resources.

Air mech control tower upgrades:

1. Bomb racks. This upgrade attaches a pair of 100lb bomb racks to your air mechs. When carrying bombs, air-to-air effectiveness will be degraded. Bombs will spawn automatically in their racks, but the reload time is extensive. Combat pod operators can opt to disable the bomb racks if they wish to keep their mech in an anti-air configuration. The cost for this upgrade is 200 resources. Please note that this upgrade is compatible with your millipede nest eggs. While eggs will not spawn automatically in the bomb rack, your construction drones may mount a pair of eggs in place of the standard 100lb bombs.

Ship mech drydock upgrades:

1. Patrol boat missile launcher. This upgrade adds an aft-mounted missile launcher that fires dual-purpose missiles. The cost for this upgrade is 200 resources.

2. Destroyer air defense upgrade. This upgrade adds two additional twin-20mm weapons mounts. The scanners on the vessel are upgraded to track air targets 15% more efficiently. The cost for this upgrade is 300 resources.

There was a lot of resource cost involved with the upgrades, but Hugh wanted it all. He placed the upgrades in the queue, starting with the infantry, main battle mechs, light mechs, air mechs, ship mechs, and then the upgrades for his forward bases. Ahead of everything on the priority scale was casualty replacement. With three forward bases, the Millipede hive, and the resources gathered at the command post, Hugh was staying well ahead of the curve even with all factories working on pumping out new units.

The ship mechs were the costliest, but Hugh only had two destroyers in the queue and the resources they required was enough to almost field a company of main battle mechs. When the first destroyer walked out of the shipyard, he understood why they were so expensive. The destroyer dwarfed his other mechs and mounted some impressive firepower. There were four 5inch main guns that could hurl shells that were more powerful than any of his other mechs. To support the main guns were a pair of twin mounted 20mm cannons and eight machineguns mounted at various parts of the hull. In the center of the ship was the real long-range firepower a dual-mounted missile launcher that fired the GCA version of a tomahawk missile.

A little experimentation with Admiral Nix at the helm revealed the missiles on the destroyer could reach halfway across Hugh’s zone. They could be dumb-fired like the missile battery at his command post, or if another mech had the target in line of sight, they could be used to home in on the target with modest accuracy. He wouldn’t be able to hit a moving light mech, but the blast radius on the missile was huge and he could really do some damage on massed formations of troops.

Finding out how powerful naval vessels could be, Hugh realized that he needed to make sure a defensive fleet was kept near his command post. The Ssath no doubt had similar vessels at least in function if not in style, and Hugh’s command post wouldn’t stand up to the punishment of a naval barrage for long. Air mechs and other naval vessels would be his only real form of defense since the ships could outrange his land units.

The cost made sure that neither core could have a huge fleet, and in the end, his land units would have to do the heavy lifting of carrying the fight to the final guardian, whatever that was. His ships could walk on land, but their pace was ponderous, and they made for attractive targets given their size. Armor on the destroyers wasn’t all that great either, it was about the same as his M4 main battle mechs and not even as thick as his new M26 mechs. The heavier ship classes in the higher tiers might overcome the limited armor protection, but they also would be even larger targets if they were walking around on land.

“Sir, we’ve got eyes on our first objective,” one of the scouts reported. It was the scout pushing into the zone just past where Vilkrex had been. He was at the forward base and it was showing as vacant. The core that had been here must have been destroyed before Hssim could catpure the location. His scout proceeded further into the zone and would cross over into the Ssath zone next.

“We’ve got Ssath at this forward base,” the scout working in the other direction reported. It was the zone just past where Dalven’s core had been, and given how built up it was, Hugh figured the forward base had been held by Hssim since early in the battle. Its layout was a bit different from the human forward bases, but it did have the traditional trench line with bunkers around the perimeter. A single large building housed what passed for the Ssath guard post and Hugh could see a trio of medium mech artillery pieces parked in the center of the base. At least a hundred infantry mechs were manning the trench line and turrets were placed every hundred yards. None of the mechs were moving around much, so Hugh couldn’t really tell which were AI-controlled and which were pod-operated ones.

They had Hssim bracketed now, he was in the zone directly across from Hugh and he only had control of one forward base where Hugh had three. For once, Hugh had an advantage over his opponent, but Hssim had plenty of tricks up his dino sleeves and Hugh knew it wouldn’t be an easy task to put Hssim down.