War Core 4, Chapter 19.

Chapter 19.

“Everyone pull back to the command post, we’ll make our stand there,” Hugh ordered.

“We’ve got about five minutes before they hit, can you finish getting my infantry upgraded?” Tran asked.

When the command post had upgraded to tier four, the barracks had as well. All the new infantry mechs coming off the line were tier four, but many had been out on patrol and hadn’t had the time to return and get upgraded by a construction drone. Hugh hadn’t wanted to risk a construction drone wandering from mech to mech out in the jungle, but now that they were heading back to defend, he designated several construction drones to upgrade them as soon as they arrived.

At tier four, the assault mech infantry path started to take shape. The normal chassis of the mech was a bit beefier, with heavier armor, and the main rifle was upgraded with a heavier barrel that allowed for a high rate of fire. Another boost to their firepower was a pistol-caliber weapon mounted on the mech’s shoulder. It was AI-controlled, typically targeting the nearest threat, and was rather inaccurate at longer ranges. Despite its shortcomings, it was extra firepower and when you had multiple infantry defending a position, the shoulder-mounted weapons would throw a fair bit of plasma toward the enemy.

“Have them queue up behind the barracks, I’ll have some drones ready for them,” Hugh replied to Tran, assigning ten drones to work on the upgrades. There was twenty already upgraded infantry built by now, and Tran had them dig in behind the low wall that surrounded the command post area. The wall wasn’t much protection, but it was better than nothing. It was only waist-high, but with the infantry crouched behind it, they were mostly covered. His defensive garrison troops were a bit less effective, standing up straight behind the wall, and leaving most of their upper body exposed.

“Captain Cartwright reporting in, what’s going on?” Cartwright asked as the first light mech came off the line.

“We don’t have a lot of time to explain, hostiles are coming in from the east. We’re trying to hold the command post, but we’re outnumbered and maybe even out-tiered by the enemy core,” Hugh explained. To his credit, Cartwright didn’t stand there asking more questions, he went right to work.

“If you’re defending the command post directly, I’ll take the light mechs and try to flank the enemy,” Cartwright offered.

“Good, I’ll assign the defensive garrison gunboats to support you as well,” Hugh said.

The jungle was thick, but not to the point where it would impede the light mechs and ungainly gunboats from moving. It wouldn’t be much of a force, and he figured maybe one more mech would be built before the enemy arrived, but with their heavier firepower, they could make a difference. The gunboats had a .50 caliber weapon mounted in the bow which should be sufficient against the enemy light mechs which would be Cartwright's primary target. Hugh’s light mech factory hadn’t finished before Hugh upgraded the command post to tier four, which meant that it had matched the command post’s tier.

At tier four, the T-7 mech with its .50 caliber main gun was replaced by the more heavily armed and armored, M3 Stuart that mounted a 37mm main gun and a single coaxial .30 caliber machinegun. With the light mechs squared away, Hugh looked over the rest of the defenses. He had thirty of his garrison troops manning the bunkers guarding the beach, so he pulled them back to the command post. Upgrades for his forces could be purchased, but there was little time to install them. At least he could unlock the plasma grenades and have the drones start churning them out. Each mech should have at least one ready to go by the time the enemy arrived.

Hugh also had the 20mm gun mounted on his command post, it packed a punch and had a high rate of fire, but it was rather exposed and only minimally armored, so it wasn’t likely to last very long in this fight. The missile launcher could be devastating, but it wouldn’t be useful until the enemy showed itself. They weren’t guided weapons and had to be timed just perfectly to hit a moving target. When the enemy arrived for the attack, he’d likely have a shot. Thinking about it for a moment, Hugh thought that there might be a way to thin the enemy numbers before they arrived.

“Private Ohmes, do you still have eyes on the enemy?” Hugh asked, pulling up the information on the private that had survived the firefight.

“Roger that, sir, I’ve been trailing them since they passed by, I figured I’d attack once they were all focused on you,” Ohmes said.

“Good call, soldier, keep on their tail, I’m sending a present their way,” Hugh replied as he activated the missile launcher. Accuracy wouldn’t be great, but with Ohmes keeping pace with the enemy, he had enough information to calculate where he needed to target the missiles to blanket their force. Being transformed into a giant machine that controlled mechs had its upsides, one of those was a computer for a brain that made calculations like this with little trouble.

One after another, the six missiles in the launcher fired off in a plume of smoke and fire. They arced out toward the enemy forces, only to be met by a hail of plasma fire as the hostile mechs tried to swat them down. The lead missile and the next two were hit by the incoming fire, exploding in the air and taking out the fourth missile as it passed through the clouds of debris. The last two made it through the gauntlet of enemy fire, slamming into the ground and unleashing a huge explosion.

“Ohmes, get me a BDA on that strike,” Tran ordered, taking over for Hugh now that the barrage had struck. The BDA, or Bomb Damage Assessment, would give them a feel for how much damage they had inflicted on the enemy advance. With Ohmes trailing the enemy force, he’d pass by the debris and get a good idea of the results.

The enemy was almost on them, and Hugh had forty-one infantry mechs on the line as well as the defensive garrison forces to work with. Ten infantry mechs that had been the furthest out on patrol were still out in the field, but they would jump into the fight soon after the battle started. A second light mech had been constructed and joined Cartwright to the southeast of the command post where the beach met the tree line. Once the fight started they would push north into the enemy flank. A third light mech was being built, but it wouldn’t be complete before the enemy hit. More infantry was being built at a rate of one per minute. He did get another lucky proc of the production perk, giving him two mechs for the price and time it took to build one.

“Looks like they spread out as the strike came in, sir, but we did whittle them down a bit. I’d estimate ten enemy infantry mechs were destroyed along with a pair of light mechs. Several others were damaged and are lagging behind the main force. I’ll engage the ones falling behind as soon as the fight starts,” Ohmes reported.

Plasma fire erupted from the tree line as the enemy infantry arrived. It was met by immediate return fire from Hugh’s troops. His soldiers were behind cover, and the enemy had some partial concealment from the jungle, but only a few of them had any real cover. His garrison defenders were a different story, they stood there banging away at the enemy force, doing some damage, but were being picked off rather quickly.

From above, the ten Buffalo fighter mechs began strafing runs on the enemy infantry force, and at tier four, both their armor and armament had improved. They now sported a single .50 caliber and a single .30 caliber machinegun that they were using to hose down any enemy that they could spot inside the trees. Small puffs of plasma fire met their attack and Hugh could make out the strange snail-shaped enemy light mechs firing on them with light cannons that appeared when a panel on the armored shell opened. The shells burst like flak and were very accurate, dropping two of the air mechs on the first pass and damaging several others.

Hugh’s cannon on the command post was chugging out rounds and despite it being an automated system, it wasn’t doing too badly. Hugh couldn’t aim it directly, but he could set target priority. He prioritized the enemy avatar, then any light mechs in range, and then infantry. With the light mechs holding back to deal with the air strike, the cannon was taking down an enemy infantry mech every few seconds.

A pair of light anti-armor rockets streaked across the battle, slamming into the 20mm turret. Hugh could feel pain as the missiles hit and blasted the cannon off his roof. A quick scan of the enemy line revealed where they had come from. The enemy avatar had joined the fight.

The avatar was based on one of the enemy infantry mechs but was larger and sported two heads and four arms. Mounted on each head where the fangs of a serpent would be were pistol-caliber plasma weapons. One pair of arms on the humanoid torso held curved blades that resembled a scimitar and glowed with a blue light. The other pair of arms had been replaced with light machineguns. Over the shoulders of the mech were two launch rails, that were already being reloaded with a fresh pair of rockets. The avatar moved with a grace that belied its large size and it was urging its troops to attack and finish the fight.

Having dealt with the last of Hugh’s air mechs, the enemy snail mechs joined the battle and supported the infantry as they crossed the open territory between Hugh’s command post and the jungle. The low wall protecting Hugh’s forces was a shambles, breached in a dozen spots. Despite the loss of their cover, his infantry was still in the fight. Most of his garrison troops were down, but they had done some work, thinning the numbers of enemy infantry.

Fire to the north and south of the enemy forces began to hit as the last of Hugh’s infantry joined the battle and Cartwright’s light mechs and gunboats engaged from the south. The light mechs concentrated on their enemy counterparts, the 37mm main gun seemed to have little trouble cracking the shells of the snail-like enemy light mechs. The gunboats just marched straight ahead, firing their .50 caliber guns at the nearest target. Tran shifted the positions of the infantry still defending the ruins of the wall. The enemy had the numerical advantage and was trying to overlap Hugh’s line.

The soldiers in the combat pods operating Hugh’s infantry were all veterans and knew their stuff. When the wall in front of one was destroyed, he went prone, reducing the target profile. They were deadly accurate with their plasma rifles and if the enemy didn’t outnumber them almost two to one, the fight would already be over. The enemy absorbed the losses and pressed forward, supported by ten light mechs as the rest turned to engage Cartwright’s flanking attack. Placing himself among the light mechs, the enemy avatar would pop out to fire, and then use the heavier units as cover.

After the enemy had covered half the distance to Hugh’s command post, Hugh’s infantry threw their grenades. Twenty-five explosions rippled across the enemy line, blasting apart infantry, and even a pair of light mechs. Hugh’s soldiers continued to pour accurate fire into the enemy, dropping the infantry for now and ignoring the light mechs. A third of the enemy force had been caught in the grenade volley and destroyed or damaged to some extent.

The attack stalled out, as another light mech walked off Hugh’s assembly line and joined the fight, its 37mm gun claiming an enemy light mech with its first shot. Things were balanced on a thin wire as the two forces fought. Hugh had nothing left to contribute, except for his avatar. He loathed to activate it now, wanting to save it for later in the battle, but if they couldn’t hold, he would join the fight personally rather than wait for the command post to be burned down around him.

“They’re pulling back, sir,” Tran said as the enemy infantry and their core’s avatar broke from the fight. The surviving enemy light mechs gave them cover as they retreated in good order. Their light mechs were odd, instead of a turret for their main gun, the gun was mounted on a gimbal inside the mech. Its armored shell had several panels that could open, allowing the gun to fire in any direction. There wasn’t any secondary weapon that Hugh could see, but it could be that it was something really short-ranged or maybe a melee option that he hoped they didn’t get a chance to use on his forces.

“Why are they giving up the fight?” Cartwright said. He was still operating his mech, but it was in bad shape. One leg had been blasted off and the main gun was destroyed. The second mech that had joined him was blown apart, as were all the gunboats. They had given even better than they had received. Eight enemy light mechs and a slew of infantry had been brought down by Cartwright's forces in exchange for a few AI units, one light mech, and a mobility kill on Cartwright’s mech.

“There’s a wave of AI-controlled forces that are going to attack each core in just a few minutes. The enemy core probably figured that our forces were still tier zero or one since we just joined the fight. When the losses mounted, whoever was leading them realized he might not have enough left to defend his command post if they fought this to the end. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them,” Hugh replied.

“He’s welcome to try again, we’ll be ready next time,” Tran added.

“Let’s pick up the pieces and get ready for whatever the GCA is about to throw at us,” Hugh said. They were in bad shape, with only twenty infantry and one operational light mech left in the fight. Fresh forces were being built, but there were less than six minutes before the attack began. His garrison was down to just a couple of mechs, and Hugh doubted that he had enough time to even make up even half their losses before the attack began.