War Core 4, Chapter 24.

Chapter 24.

Hugh thought they had dealt with the monster rather quickly, but apparently, they didn’t get the first kill this time. The GCA didn’t say who the lucky winner was, probably to keep other cores from gaining intel on each other’s accomplishments. Once they figured out its fighting style, the Hydra hadn’t been that difficult an opponent. If that pilot hadn’t spotted the monster’s attack on the forward operating base, they might have fared poorly against its healing ability. With some warning, they were able to concoct a proper defense.

A core has been eliminated; 7 cores remain in the fight.

It looked like someone hadn’t done as well against the Hydra. If another core had too many units spread out across the battlefield, it might have just fed the beast and made it more powerful. Hugh wondered who had been lost, was it Dalven, or one of his other so-called allies?

“I just had a bad thought. What happens to the Hydra that eliminated the other core? Does the GCA call it back, or does it stay on the battlefield, getting bigger and stronger as it eats its way through the other cores?” Zacharias asked.

“That’s scary, make sure we keep an eye on our borders. While I kind of hope that one of our neighboring opponents was the one taken out, maybe that’s not a good thing,” Hugh replied.

“Hugh, I’d like to take our forces out to secure the FOB. With the defenders there destroyed by the Hydra, we might be able to just walk in and take it,” Tran said.

“Good call, take whatever units that you need, and we’ll have to decide on what kind of garrison to leave there,” Hugh said.

With that done, Hugh shuffled their forces, returning ten of the construction drones along with a squad of infantry and a pair of light mechs to the millipede hive. There were eggs to harvest and for now, he’d have them brought to the command post. Zacharias tested using them as bombs, and the eggs were able to stand up to being dropped. Their air mechs weren’t set up for bombing, and the system they used wasn’t the best and could only carry one egg safely. Some of the later air mech variants would be a better fit and drop multiple eggs at a time. If they got enough notice, they could seed the path of an enemy attack with them and hopefully cause some damage, or at least delay the attack as the enemy avoided the makeshift mines.

They didn’t take any losses in the last attack, so the number of troops continued to increase. Still, Hugh was reluctant to instigate a fight with the other cores. There was a lot to do before he felt the command post was secure enough to defend itself while much of their army was on the offensive. Recon was a good idea, though and he wanted to see what the serpent mechs next door were doing as well as get eyes on whoever was to the west.

“Captain Tran, let’s get a recon team to both the east and west. We need to know what’s out there,” Hugh ordered.

“Roger that, sir. We might want to try and infiltrate them in from the north, it’s a lot longer path to where the command posts will be located, but it’ll give us a better chance at dodging any patrols. I’d also like to position a series of listening posts at the border to keep tabs on any attacks from those directions,” Tran said.

“Sounds good, but we’ll use construction drones for the listening posts, they’re cheaper to produce than an infantry mech, and since they’re likely to get hit at some point, we won’t be risking anyone in a combat pod when they get knocked out,” Hugh said.

“My soldiers will guide the drones to the best hide locations. Hopefully, we can keep them alive for a bit longer that way,” Tran said.

“If we have enough time, I may even be able to get the drones out on the border to start building some minefields for us,” Hugh suggested. Everyone was hard at work. The drones were finishing up the fortifications protecting the command post area, and the port facility was almost completed. Resources were just under a thousand and once he hit 1250, Hugh could bump the command post to tier five.

They had harvested the last of the Kraken, and his drones were now going to work on the Hydra. There were also two debris fields just outside their base and those were mostly untouched. The millipede hive was also a goldmine of resources, and the construction drones should have the resource drop-off location completed before too long.

Congratulations, your forces have captured the Forward Operating Base (FOB), tier 1. At this tier, the base offers bunkers and a trench line for the defending troops to utilize. This location will now start generating resources for your command post.

At the center of the base is an automated High-Velocity missile system that incorporates anti-armor and anti-air capabilities. Reloads are replaced over time and do not consume any of your resources.

There is a cost of 250 resources to upgrade the base to tier 2. A tier 2 forward operating base will provide resources for a longer timeframe and adds a resource drop-off location. In addition, the defenses inside the base are strengthened and new structures may be added to the base for an additional cost.

“We found two more debris fields out here,” Tran reported. Hugh took a look at the debris fields, they weren’t as large as the fields outside his base, but it might be advantageous to spend the resources to upgrade the forward base which was supposed to include a resource drop-off location. It was a long way from the forward base to the millipede nest which was the next closest drop-off location.

“It’ll delay our tier five command post for a bit longer, but I think we need to upgrade the forward base so we can harvest the resources more efficiently. We’ll also add another squad of infantry to the garrison and bring the total light mechs up to four,” Hugh decided. If he was going to invest in resources, he wanted to keep them protected.

It was also a good time to reshuffle his drones. He bumped up the drone total to sixty. Ten were kept at the command post to work on the fortifications and any other upgrades for the troops there. Twenty were gathering resources near the command post. Another ten each would be assigned to the millipede hive and the forward base where they would upgrade the facility and then start resource harvesting. The final ten drones were spread out around the border, watching for enemy incursions.

The shipyard was now ready. Hugh immediately started on the drydock which would provide upgrade options for his fleet. While it would further delay tier five for the command post, Hugh wanted all his units to be fully upgraded for this fight. He had gotten lucky in the first attack waves and had run into two foes that air mechs were excellent against. Hugh was willing to bet that the next wave of attacks would be something that could swat his air mechs from the sky and he wanted to be prepared with the proper units.

Port facility, tier 4.

Build options:

1. Gunboat. A lightly armored craft with limited firepower. The gunboat features a twin-mounts .50 caliber machinegun in a bow turret. The gunboat requires 75 resources to construct.

2.  Patrol Boat. Larger and capable of carrying an impressive array of weaponry, the patrol boat maintains the high-speed capability of the gunboat but features better survivability. Armaments include two twin-.50 caliber turrets. Additional upgrades and armaments can be researched once you have constructed a drydock. The patrol boat requires 150 resources to construct.

Just like back on Earth, having a navy was going to be expensive. Even the gunboat cost more than a main battle mech, with considerably less firepower. He was going to have to run lean with the number of vessels for his fleet. Reluctantly, Hugh ordered the construction of four patrol boats. To him, the gunboats seemed like a bad investment, they were flimsy and didn’t have much to offer all that much in the way of offensive firepower. He was pretty sure that four patrol boats could beat eight gunboats for the same cost.

Tier five for the command post was going to be further away than ever, and Hugh hoped the wasn’t making the wrong call by building up and upgrading everything before jumping into higher tiers. If the wanted to focus on a single type of unit, he could just ignore everything but the command post and the factory for that unit. It just didn’t seem like this fight was going to be won by an all-in build like that. Slow and steady with a balanced force and minimal resources wasted was going to be the key to victory.

“We’ve got eyes on a serpent patrol, sir,” one of the recon soldiers called in. Thankfully, they hadn’t been spotted as they inserted into enemy territory far to north. He still had no idea what this species was called, but serpent mechs seemed kind of fitting until they knew for sure. Tran had sent a section of five infantry into each of the neighboring territories, enough to defend against a lone sentry, but still fast enough to escape a larger force. For now, information was more important than combat, but if the enemy wanted to offer up any free kills, Hugh was glad to accommodate them.

“Hold your fire for now, I’d rather not let the enemy know we're snooping about just yet,” Hugh ordered. The team waited for the patrol to pass, then waited some more just to be safe before moving deeper into enemy territory. Knowing the GCA predisposition to symmetry, they were betting that the enemy zone had the same forward base in the same location. It would be a good first strike for his army once it was ready.

“Looks like they haven’t taken the forward base yet,” the patrol reported when they reached the same spot in enemy territory where Hugh’s forward base was.

The jerky movements of the serpent infantry defending the base gave away that they were AI-controlled units. It seemed that the GCA populated the forward base with the same type of units as the core that controlled the territory. There were only a few and he could see a distinct trail of destruction through the forward operating base. It appeared the Hydra had pushed through the area just like it had in Hugh’s zone. The core here must not have known that the base had been depleted of defenders by the Hydra. Only a few units had respawned, and Hugh figured it would take some time for the base to be fully manned again.

“I think our opponent might be worse off than we thought. They must not have spotted the trick with the Hydra soon enough and took losses. While I want to get a look at the enemy command post. Why don’t we park the scouts here to keep tabs on the place? Maybe we can steal the forward base out from under them,” Hugh said. It might finally be time to go on the offensive. For some reason, the GCA hadn’t announced the countdown to the next wave of attacks yet. Could there still be another core fighting the Hydra?

“What do you want to send on the attack?” Cartwright asked.

“Why don’t you lead it? Take the main battle mechs, four light mechs, and fifty infantry to secure the base. I’ll pull some of the drones off gathering duties to follow along and make any repairs you might need. If we win, they can start building defenses to help us hold it for as long as we can. The GCA only stocked these forward bases with so many resources. Every resource point we siphon off is one more that the enemy can’t use,” Hugh ordered.

It was a big force and would leave his command post lightly defended. Still, new mechs were being built and he had the minefield drop and the turret swarm still up his sleeve if he needed them. There was also the Drop Beacon of the Vanquished. Hugh wanted to save something for the final guardian, but it wouldn’t do him any good to have a bunch of surprises in the bank if his command post was destroyed.

“Have them follow the same path our scouts took. It’s a longer route than going straight in from the command post, but they have a better chance of getting there without being spotted,” Hugh said.

He took a glance at the forces to the west, they were making slow progress and the soldier’s there had avoided a few construction drones that made them take a long detour to avoid discovery. Sadly, the drones were fairly standard ones used by several species. They were armed with a light laser, and the fact they were being used as scouts narrowed things down, but it could still be one of a least a score of enemies that they data on.

While Hugh waited for his attack force to make its journey to the forward base, he watched the first patrol boat being completed. It was about double the size of the gunboats he initially started with, and it looked sturdier and better armored. The armor was only about the same as the armor on one of his light mechs, but just about everything could punch through the gunboats. With the twin turrets, the gunboats had decent firepower for their size. Four .50 caliber machineguns were nothing to sneeze at.

“I’m in the fight, what’s our situation?” Admiral Nix asked.

“Admiral? I didn’t expect you to join us,” Hugh said, a bit shocked. Nix was their commanding officer as well as their naval liaison, and Hugh had figured that another, more junior officer would be the one in the combat pod.

“I’m not sure what’s going on, but the GCA made it seem like you’ve gotten yourself into something big. If the Navy’s going to get involved, I want to be the one at the helm. Don’t worry about ranks, this is your show, I’m just here to command the naval units, though it seems like my ship is walking instead of sailing,” Nix said.

“Yeah, the ship mechs tend to do stuff like that, I’m sure you’ll get used to being a landlubber and a ship’s captain at the same time,” Hugh replied before giving Nix a rundown on what had happened since he supposedly had gone on leave.

“So, we’re fighting to maybe end the whole GCA, and our worst enemy is our supposed ally. Not something I expected when I jumped into the combat pod. I’ll do my part. Let me set up a patrol in the waters near the command post. When we have more ships, I might want to do some recon, but for now, just getting a heads up on an unexpected attack from the sea seems like a good idea,” Nix said.

A core has been defeated; 6 cores remain in the fight.

The next wave of attacks will begin in 1 hour.