War Core 4, Chapter 18

Chapter 18.

Your core has been connected to the command post.

Hugh looked around the area as the last bits of his carrier unfolded and joined the command post. It was already activating and building its construction drones. To Hugh’s surprise, the 20mm cannon from the carrier was now mounted in an armored turret on the roof of his command post. The missile launcher was still there, mounted on a concrete pad next to the command post.

Before digging into his resource situation and starting a build order, Hugh spotted something. A trail of flame appeared above his command post, causing Hugh to panic for a moment. It was a drop pod, but who sent it?

Looking over his forces, Hugh had little to defend against a determined assault. His garrison troops were being replenished from the losses they had taken to secure the beach, and Hugh hadn’t had time to order any additional forces. He had some starting resources and used those to begin a squad of infantry, which would be built too late to challenge whatever was coming for him. The drop pod slammed into the ground just outside his command post. Some of his fears were allayed when the defensive garrison forces didn’t react to the drop. A moment later he received a system prompt that explained what was going on.

During the last stage of the challenge, you used an alternate path to completion. In completing the challenge, you gained control of several repair and combat drones. To reward your ingenuity, 5 construction drones and some additional resources have been dropped near your command post.

The drones walked out of the drop ship and connected to Hugh’s core. He ordered three of them to begin gathering resources and then sent the rest to start on the light mech factory. He needed heavier weapons if he was going to hold off the assault that was coming in just over twenty minutes. Not only did Hugh have to worry about the automated waves of attackers, but he also had to deal with hostile neighbors, neighbors that had a head start on him. As Hugh’s drones got to work, and the barracks started to build his infantry, new system prompts appeared, giving further details on the battle to come.

Your location is now set to active, and your territory may be invaded by hostile cores. Up to this point, they have been prevented from entering to preserve any resources for your use. Please note that the unit cap for the final stage of the battle pits challenge had been removed. The only restriction to the size of your force is the available resources at your disposal. Map overlay has been integrated into your command post. You can share vision over your part of the battlefield with your allies, but you must first contact them by moving a combat unit into the visual range of an allied unit.

Command Post, tier 2.

Resources: 285.

Structures:

1. Barracks, tier 2.

Fixed defenses:

1. Reinforced infantry bunkers: 3. Several of these structures are damaged, repair them with your construction drones if you wish them to provide the full benefit to your defenders. Garrison troops may also be assigned to any of your defensive structures.

2. Your command post has been upgraded with the weapons it had while still a carrier. You have a single 20mm, dual-purpose plasma cannon, and a long-range missile launcher. If destroyed, these defenses can be rebuilt by your construction drones. Reloads for the missile launcher will be created slowly over time and do not require additional resources. As you gain higher tiers, additional defensive options for your command post and other structures may be unlocked.

Units.

Infantry mechs: 0.

Light mechs: 0.

Main battle mechs: 0.

Air mechs: 0.

Ship mechs: 0.

Defensive garrison forces:

Infantry: 30.

Light mechs: 0.

Main battle mechs: 0.

Air mechs: 10.

Gunboat class vessels: 7.

You may now expend additional perks if you wish. Using the perks at this time will grant you the following.

1. Minor perk (2). Choose either an additional 5 construction drones or an additional fixed defense structure.

2. Superior perk (1). Raise your command post to tier 4 and receive a free main battle mech factory.

He was behind the power curve with his opponents and allies, not to mention Hugh wasn’t sure how many chances he would have to spend his perks. He decided on one of each option for the minor perks and then activated the superior perk. Bumping up his command post and other structures to tier four was a solid boost toward catching up with the other cores. It would also improve his units, and Hugh had no desire to go toe to toe with a hostile core using units that were several tiers in power below his foe.

A fresh team of construction drones was nearly instantaneously produced on his assembly line as the first minor perk went into effect. They started immediately on the command post, expanding and improving it to the tier four standard as they went. One of the new construction drones walked its way down to the beach and began to build atop the central bunker. It worked at an impossibly rapid pace, and soon, the shape of a small missile launcher took shape. It wasn’t the long-range version that Hugh had mounted next to his command post, but it would help to fend off the eventual attack from the automated units.

“Hugh, what’s been going on?” Captain Tran asked as the first pod-controlled infantry mech finished construction.

“It’s kind of a long story, but I’ll give you the condensed version. It turns out the GCA is running on autopilot, all the member species are either dead or moved on somewhere else. It turns out the system has been running this way for who knows how long, and the little bugs in the system are getting worse and worse without anybody to fix or update them. Who knows how long it will be before the system has a major fault that might spell the end of us,” Hugh said.

“What? How did you figure that out? We had no idea you were in a fight. Our command just got the notification from the GCA to prepare the combat pods to support you,” Tran said, sounding justifiably confused.

“You’re not going to believe this, it was the Ssath that figured things out. Now we’ve entered into what the GCA calls a battle pits team challenge. The winners of the challenge have the chance to join the GCA as a member species. If one of us does that, we would be the sole controller of the whole operation. The plan is to order the GCA to return everyone home and shut down the entire system,” Hugh explained, not sure if he was getting through to Tran.

“Okay, that’s a lot to process, but assuming your intel is true, do you really trust the Ssath enough to be allied with them?” Tran asked.

“No, but I don’t see as we have a choice, at least by participating, we can keep our eye on the other allied participants. One of the Yaelar cores is here, Dalven, who we’ve fought with before. I don’t trust Hssim, the Ssath core, or Vilkrex the other core that’s survived so far, but at least the Yaelar have our backs, and we’ll have theirs,” Hugh offered.

“What’s a Vilkrex, and what kind of fight are we in?” Tran asked.

“Vilkrex is the core’s name, she’s from a weird insect-like species. So far, she’s toed the line, but something about her rubs me the wrong way, like how she uses her young to take control of the minds of others.” Hugh said.

“Wait, what? Now we’ve got mind-controlling cores out there?” Tran asked.

“Yes, at least in her physical form, as a core, her units and fighting style are unknown. The rundown on the fight is this, we’re on an island and need to defeat opponents to open the way to challenge the guardian in the central volcano area. Defeat the guardian and win a free GCA membership card,” Hugh said.

“That’s disturbing, and you say she might be an ally?” Tran asked.

“Supposedly, but I’m assuming either Vilkrex, Hssim, or both will try to backstab us and try to take over the GCA for their own at some point. Right now, our fight just started, and we have a wave of automated units attacking every now and then, in addition to four other hostile cores. With our ‘allies’, that makes for eight cores in the mix. We need to defend from just about every direction here, any suggestions?” Hugh asked.

“Give me a minute to look things over, and send the GCA battle parameters if you can,” Tran said. Hugh sent him the information, as they worked out a possible plan for the fight. The volcano was to the north, so where their territory butted up against the volcano might be safe from attack. He’d need to keep some scouts out there to make sure, but the main focus of their efforts would be the sea to the south and the hostile cores to the east and west.

Tran agreed that they couldn’t be strong everywhere, and they settled on light defenses to the east and west, with a stronger force covering the beach since it was much closer to the command post. They’d build up a strong offensive force and use it to fend off attacks and to push the enemy when it made sense to do so. Ideally, they have one strong force for offense and a smaller, yet still powerful force to respond and support the defenders at any point on their territory. When it was time for the automated attackers to arrive, they’d pull everything in and defend the command post.

Keeping from getting overrun immediately was the biggest concern, but resources were going to be a bigger problem the longer the battle dragged on. Hugh could spot several fields of debris from the fight earlier that he could salvage, and given the perk he had selected, there were likely others nearby as well for him to exploit. He needed to get eyes on his foes to find out where they were and if there was anything inside his territory that needed to be secured.

As the infantry mechs were produced, Tran organized them into sections of five mechs and sent them in every direction. With more defensive garrison forces coming online from his command post and reaching tier four, Hugh decided to assign a squad to each of the bunkers on the beach. Two of the bunkers were practically ruins, but he pulled a construction drone off of gathering duty to get them back in shape.

Infantry and construction drones were being produced as fast as he could gather the resources to fuel the factories. Hugh decided to stop for now at thirty construction drones, saving the resources for more combat units and upgrades. As it stood, he had almost four tiers of upgrades to purchase, and Hugh wanted everything but didn’t have the resources to spend on them just yet. A pair of drones were working on the main battle mech factory. It was a free building because of the superior perk he had cashed in, but he could only afford to pull two drones off gathering duties to get it built, so the going was slow.

There was quite a bit of salvage from the destroyed buildings and defenders. To help things out, two more patches of debris were found relatively close to the command post. His reprocessing efficiency perk was coming in handy, as was the production perk for his infantry mechs. Already, it had activated twice, giving him a pair of free mechs. As the battle dragged on, and resources became scarce, the perk would be a godsend.

“We’ve got eyes on some hostiles, I think these are automated creeps, not any of the core forces,” one of the soldiers piloting the infantry mechs to the west called out. Hugh looked at what he had found. Once outside the open area around the command post, the island was tropical and densely covered with vegetation and rocky areas that were difficult for even the mechs to traverse safely.

The soldier had found a small cave opening in one of the rocky areas, and a few mechs could be seen meandering around the entrance. They were like giant millipedes if a millipede was six feet long and made from metal. What was inside the cave was anybody’s guess, but it was likely to have resources or some kind of perk for the core that cleared it.

“Keep an eye on it for now, when we get enough troops gathered, we’ll try to secure it,” Hugh ordered. He had about a full platoon of infantry now, but fifty mechs spread out scouting the entire area wasn’t all that many. The island was proving larger than he had first thought, and he would have to have a lot more units if he wanted to make a push anywhere. Tran said he’d try to take the cave with a couple of infantry squads supported by a light mech once the factory was finished.

The light mech factory was almost done, and Hugh would be glad to have Captain Cartwright back in command of his armor forces. Hugh wanted to rush the main battle mech factory, but the resources just weren’t there yet. Once he built up his lighter forces, he would focus on getting the big boys online. There was also the issue of air mechs and a shipyard. It looked like both would be useful in the fight, but they would also draw resources from the rest of his forces. The ten air mechs he had received as part of his garrison were just orbiting the command post, ready to fight, but there wasn’t a dedicated airfield for them.

“Contact, large enemy force…” a soldier to the east called out before being cut down by the enemy fire. The rest of the section the soldier was with went into action, finding cover and returning fire, but the volume of incoming fire from the enemy mechs was overpowering and they were quickly cut down. Hugh just got a glimpse of the enemy mechs, and where the Ssath appeared to be like dinosaurs, these new mechs were like giant serpent people, with a snake’s lower body and a humanoid torso.

“It’s another core, and it looks like they’re making a push to take us out early,” Hugh said, watching as the last surviving mech of the section hunkered down to get a good look at the enemy force. At least a couple of platoons of infantry marched by, accompanied by a score of light mechs, strange things that resembled snail shells on a hovercraft platform. Bringing up the rear was something that Hugh was surprised to see so early in the fight, the enemy core’s avatar had come along for the assault.

It was a big gamble on the part of the other core, bringing over this many troops and risking his avatar, but given how limited Hugh’s forces were, it was a gamble that just might pay off for his foe.