War Core 4, Chapter 20.

Chapter 20.

“Hugh, do we have any idea where the attack will come from?” Cartwright asked.

“No, but given the bunker placement, I’m thinking they’ll hit us from the sea. Since the other cores have been fighting for a little while, this won’t be the first wave, so it could be a tough fight,” Hugh said.

“I’ll get some patrols out, so we can see if anything is pushing through the jungle toward us,” Tran offered.

“Good call, Cartwright, we’ll have you form a reaction force from the light mechs. I don’t think the main battle mech factory will be finished before the attack happens, but if the battle lasts long enough, you could see some of those join the fight,” Hugh said.

“I’m on it. We’ll hunker down in the treeline. My forces can react to any attack on the beach, but the jungle will be a bit more difficult to fight in without infantry support,” Cartwright said.

While they worked to reorganize the survivors of the battle, Hugh reprioritized his construction drones. He had thirty to work with and sent five to each of the two damaged bunkers to get those in better shape. A pair were working on repairing damaged mechs and finishing up any upgrades for the older infantry that survived. A dozen drones were gathering resources. Two drones were working on the main battle mech factory, and two were rebuilding the 20mm gun mounted on his command post.

His final two drones were also assigned to gather resources. The gathering had been disrupted during the battle and Hugh wanted to stockpile what he could before the fight started. Hugh had the drones concentrate on the resource fields further out, that way, he could pull his drones in close during the battle, keeping them safe as they worked to gather up the destroyed enemy mechs near the command post. His reprocessing efficiency trait would automatically harvest all his mechs that were destroyed, and the ten-minute timer before it activated was going to hit zero just after the battle started.

Hugh’s command post was cranking out replacements for the defensive garrison forces, but with only three minutes until the fight started, they would be well below maximum strength. Right now, he had fourteen garrison infantry and one air mech. His pod-controlled units were in a better place, Hugh now had twenty-nine and would have a few more before the fight started. Cartwright’s damaged M3 mech was being repaired and it should be finished shortly, with a fresh light mech about to be completed, he would have three of the machines at the start of the fight.

Tran took out a section of infantry to watch each direction other than the sea. That left only a handful of pod-controlled mechs to cover the command post, and the defensive wall was still a shambles. Once the drones assigned to repair the damaged mechs were done, he’d have them work on rebuilding the wall. The other weapon he had control over, the missile battery was still out of ammo, though the first replacement missile was being built inside the firing tube, and given the progress, he would have at least one shot with the weapon during the fight.

There were other options for Hugh, he could always activate his avatar, but he wanted to save that in case it was needed against another core’s avatar. The fact that if he was destroyed as an avatar, everything would stop building until he returned was a bit scary and made the risk more of a last-resort option. He had a couple of rewards on hand that could help turn the tide, including two minefields, and something called a turret swarm, which sounded kind of awesome.

He had two other rewards from his visit to Harmony Station. They would function almost like the minor perks he had used earlier. The rewards would drop five construction drones each, and it was past time he activated them. Telltale streaks of fire indicated the drop pods were on their way. Once they arrived, Hugh would have one group help with the main battle mech factory, and the other help with gathering resources.

Construction Drone Drop (x2) has been activated. The requested drones will arrive in one minute.

Thinking of main battle mechs reminded Hugh that he also had the undying mech reward for his main battle mechs. That would leave behind some kind of AI-controlled mech from the remains of any of his main battle mechs. How useful that would be was unknown. Hugh went ahead and activated the perk. This would hopefully be the last battle any of them were forced into and Hugh didn’t have any reason to save it.

Undying Mech has been activated for your main battle mechs. No qualifying units are currently on the field, please construct a main battle mech factory and construct suitable units. Be advised that the effectiveness of your undying mechs will be tied to the tier and installed upgrades for the qualifying mech.

Well, the perk was active, it was up to Hugh to build units for it to affect. It was a bit of a mixed bag, for the perk to activate, he had to have lost a pod-controlled mech, which meant a higher chance of death for that pod’s operator. At least their destruction would leave behind something useful that might help save other soldiers.

Wave three of the automated attacks have begun. Defend your cores.

“Eyes out people, let me know when you spot the enemy,” Hugh ordered to all his troops.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, the only sound out of the ordinary was the boom of the two drop pods with his construction drones arriving. Gunfire was heard down on the shore, that was where the attack was happening. Hugh shifted his attention and saw strange mechs emerging out of the water and moving to engage the bunkers. The mechs were infantry-sized and humanoid-shaped. At the end of their legs, they had two fin-like appendages that didn’t seem to give them any trouble with walking. Their facial features and armor scheme made them look like robot versions of fish men from a bad science fiction movie.

There were four defensive garrison mechs in each of the three bunkers, and the remaining garrison troops moved to defend the south wall of the command post area. At least that area hadn’t been damaged by the other core’s attack and would provide some protection for a while. The pod-controlled infantry that was still protecting the command post also moved to the south wall where they crouched down behind cover and began to look for targets.

“Tran, pull back your forces in the jungle, just leave one man at each location to watch for another attack,” Hugh ordered. The infantry had been close by, so they would arrive well before the bunkers were overrun, which looked like a distinct possibility at this point.

The attackers held long spears that released powerful bolts of plasma. So far, they had been wildly inaccurate, but they did seem to pack a punch as the stray rounds blasted large divots out of the reinforced bunkers. Hugh had pulled back the construction drones that had been working on them, and according to his interface, the damaged bunkers’ structures were only at 68%. His garrison troops were doing well enough, scoring hits on the foes with their plasma rifles. The rocket atop the center bunker fired, it was more of an anti-armor weapon, but the blast radius was enough to shatter three infantry mechs that had been close together. A new missile started construction inside the launcher, but the battle for the bunkers would be long over one way or the other before it was complete.

“Let the bunkers bleed them, we’ll hold at the command post again. Cartwright, flank them when they push past the bunker line,” Hugh ordered. He’d let the automated troops whittle down the enemy numbers. That way, if anything nastier walked out of the ocean to attack, his human-operated mechs would have plenty of warning.

The enemy infantry pushed up to the bunkers, reaching the rightmost bunker first. Hugh expected them to hook around the building and try to blast their way through the access door, as his troops had done. Instead, these fish mechs just walked right up to the firing ports, making themselves easy targets for the garrison troops inside. Once at the firing port, the enemy mechs slammed their spears into the small opening and fired their weapon.

The first blasts cracked open the firing ports, but also blew away the enemy that had fired the shot. Their powerful weapons did horrible things to their operators when fired against an armored target at point-blank range. Unconcerned for their losses, other attackers used their weapons to widen the breach. Eventually, the firing port was blasted open to the point that they could target the garrison forces inside. A few blasts into the enclosed area were enough to clear out Hugh’s mechs.

“How many of them are there?” Cartwright asked as more of the enemy continued to walk out from the water. They were spread out, but Hugh estimated they had just under a hundred enemy infantry, and one bunker was already down. The other two bunkers met a similar fate, but they killed a few more of the enemy infantry in the process. The flow of enemies stopped, but just under a hundred were walking their way toward the command post.

“Cartwright, charge in when they begin to fire on the command post, roll up their flank,” Hugh ordered. The time that the enemy spent to clear the bunker line had allowed another light mech to be completed, as well as two more infantry mechs and another pair of garrison units, including an air mech.

When the enemy closed into firing range of the command post, Hugh’s main battle mech factory was completed. Production started, but it would be a while before the first mech was ready. Hugh kept the just-built light mech behind the wall to support his defenders, Cartwright had three mechs to begin his counterattack with. They rose from the jungle where they had been concealing themselves and moved at maximum speed toward the fight.

Several of the enemy infantry peeled off to face the threat, but Cartwright kept his mechs at long range, tearing into the enemy with accurate shots from their 37mm main guns, while the strange spear weapons of the attackers were having trouble landing hits at that distance. Using their mobility, the trio of light mechs danced around the edge of the enemy formation, wearing them down as the bulk of the enemy focused on the command post.

Hugh’s cannon was back online, and the 20mm rounds were a one-shot kill every time they landed. He was outnumbered, but the enemy was rapidly losing that advantage now that his infantry was in range. Unable to distinguish between AI units and human-controlled ones, the attackers went for the easier targets, the defensive garrison troops standing behind the wall. The garrison troops were taking all the casualties while the human-controlled mechs were picking off enemy infantry like they were on the target range.

The southern wall was taking a beating and the last few garrison troops were down by the time the final enemy was dropped. Hugh’s first main battle mech came off the assembly line soon after and while it was only tier four, the M4 Sherman mech was powerful. The construction drones began to clean up and repair things, but something felt off. There should have been some kind of notification that the wave had been cleared, and they hadn’t received anything yet. Tran sent a few soldiers to check the bunkers and shoreline for stragglers.

“Look, out to sea, what is that?” One of the soldiers near the water called out. A hundred yards offshore, the water roiled as something huge made its way toward the beach. Metal tentacles broke the surface, firing beams randomly as the monster closed in. A pair of bulbous eyes glowed beneath the surface as the GCA sent Hugh a notification.

Defeat the Kraken mech to complete this wave.

Hugh wasn’t sure if his troops had enough firepower to face something so large, but that wasn’t going to stop them from trying.