War Core Wednesday! War Core 4, Chapter 14.

Chapter 14.

Hugh became more and more concerned as the pounding on the reinforced door to the security office continued. While it wasn’t on the verge of breaking down, he could see that the door rattled a bit more in its frame which would only hasten its eventual failure. A quick check of the console revealed that the automated defenses were almost ready to go.

“Check the status of the door’s integrity,” Hugh ordered his little repair drone.

“Work order accepted, beginning analysis,” the drone said as it scuttled over the face of the door and the frame around it like a metal spider. “Analysis complete. The frame in under continuous stress and will fail in approximately 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 44 seconds,” the drone stated.

“Can you repair it?” Hugh asked.

“Under the current operational parameters, this unit may not access the other side of the doorway, limiting repair options. If ordered to repair and reinforce the indicated door, the structure failure estimate will change to 2 hours, 18 minutes, and 12 seconds,” the drone advised.

“Begin repairs,” Hugh ordered. The drone scavenged bits of material from around the office and began to use various tools on the door frame, welding supports in place. While it worked Hugh check in on the security office's active defenses.

Active defenses are available. The current charge is 98%. Please select lethality level and choose the defensive turret(s) you wish to activate.

Hugh pulled up a feed of the outer office, seeing the place was swarming with more infected than it had been earlier. They were crowded around the entrance, waiting for their chance to get at Hugh. The others in his party must have already made it out of this level of the station, and the infected that had been chasing them were drifting back to the only remaining target for their infection, Hugh.

With nothing to lose, Hugh activated both turrets, setting them to lethal. A rules of engagement prompt appeared and Hugh targeted the infected. It seemed that the system could identify them without difficulty, he was a bit worried that some in the crowd of infected might be higher-ranking station employees and the system would refuse to fire and risk the collateral damage.

Outside, from the top of the security office, a small turret extended, the barrel of the weapon zeroing in on its first target. A bright beam of energy appeared, spearing the nearest infected in the head and dropping it to the ground. Hugh adjusted the targeting parameters of the turret, having it focus on the ones closest to the door and windows to the security office. He needed to cut off the flow of infected making it inside and a barricade of dead infected might just do the trick.

The second turret appeared, dropping from the ceiling of the station and immediately going to work on the crowds of infected stuffed inside. Hugh added some targeting parameters for this turret as well, having it focus on the doorway area. If the turret could lessen the pressure on the door, it might buy Hugh more time to get the security drones in operation.

Energy beams from the turrets were taking out an infected every few seconds, and at first, it appeared that the hordes didn’t even notice the attack. After about thirty minutes, the crowds began to thin. Only when their numbers started to deplete did the infected react. Inside the station, the ceiling wasn’t all that high, allowing the monsters to jump up and lash out at the turret, slamming metallic fists, and tentacles into the armored housing. Designed to hold up against rioters, the armor did its job for a time, allowing the turret to inflict even more casualties, building on the pile of dead infected that blocked the door to Hugh’s refuge.

With a shower of sparks, the turret housing finally gave way. On the console, Hugh confirmed the turret was offline, and going into the mob of infected to work on repairs was far too dangerous for his stalwart little maintenance drone. Outside, the infected had a harder time with the turret, which was mounted at the top of the building and out of reach for even the tallest of the infected. Some of the creatures began to scale the building, forcing Hugh to change the targeting parameters to focus on the ones climbing up to attack. That relieved pressure on the others, allowing fresh reinforcements to pour back into the security station.

Checking in on the security drones, Hugh could see they all averaged around a 30% charge. A quick check of the console revealed a maintenance guide for the drones. It appeared they could operate at peak efficiency until reaching around 5% of a charge, at which time, their programming would force the drone into recall mode. Once hitting recall mode, the drones would make their way back to their designated charging station. They would ignore threats as they moved, making them sitting ducks. Hugh was running out of time, the pile of infected partially blocking the door was being torn apart by the monsters and the thumps on the door were already starting to rise in volume once again.

Hugh began to set the parameters for the security drones, making their patrol zone the immediate area around the security office with a focus on the entrance. He set them to repel boarders, which was the highest combat setting. With the security drones staying close to home, Hugh figured they would have a better chance to make it back to their charging stations when their power ran low. He also gave them their highest level of autonomy, letting their AIs figure out the best way to accomplish their mission without Hugh needing to babysit them with the console the entire time they were outside. Confirming his choices, Hugh activated the dozen security drones.

At first, the drones went through a startup cycle that included moving all their actuation points and testing their various systems. While that was going on, the cradles, which proved to be more than just a charging station, added the requested equipment. Each drone waked on six metal legs with soft pads underneath them. They wouldn’t be able to spear a foe, like Hugh’s old combat drone companion could, but these were more about the firepower. Each mech had a humanoid-shaped torso and two arms that ended in three-fingered hands.

For the repel boarders setting, an additional box was mounted to the chest of each security drone. It was the additional power supply that this configuration was supposed to have. A quick check of the console confirmed that the added power supply also held just a 30% charge. The extra power would help offset the weight of the additional armor the drones were now having bolted onto them, but it wouldn’t extend their operational time. A stubby, short-barreled beam weapon was affixed to each shoulder of the security drones, giving them what should be a decent amount of firepower.

The first drones detached from their cradles and began to stomp toward the roll-up door at the back of the structure. Hugh was worried that the door opening would let the infected in, so he gathered his weapons for a fight. The door rolled up quickly despite being heavily armored. Unlike the front of the office which was swarming with infected. The rear alleyway was almost empty. Unfortunately, almost empty wasn’t quite the same as being completely empty.

A trio of infected blithered around the back, seeking some other way in, when the door opened, they let out a strange screech and charged toward the first drone that was now rolling out of the building. Twin beams on the drone fired, burning through the trio of infected in just a few seconds. The drone moved into the alley, heading toward the main road where the majority of the infected had gathered. Drones stacked up and left the office one after another as the strange screech of the infected sounded out over the area, the sound was amplified by what Hugh feard were thousands of mouths.

Seeing new targets, the infected charged the security drones. Beams flashed out, burning down enemy after enemy. The drones’ firepower increased as the last of the machines left the security office and joined in the fight. Forming into a wedge shape, the drones began to move forward, their firepower keeping the horde of infected at bay for the time being. A quick check showed that many of the infected already inside the building were leaving to join the fight against the drones, but a sizeable number remained, still hammering away at the door to Hugh’s refuge.

The laser turret outside the office continued to fire, as the climbers that had threatened it earlier left to deal with the security drones. Hugh waited for the drones to be overrun by the horde, but they still pushed forward, beam weapons burning a path through the infected. Once they made it to the front of the station, the drones formed up in around the front doorway and now shattered windows of the building.

One of the drones entered the front of the station and began to clear out the infected remaining inside. Another drone swiveled around near the shattered windows and added its fire to help out the lone drone inside. Inside the close quarters of the front office, several of the infected were able to reach the drone. They hammered on the drone, trying to pull off any part they could reach, and spearing into the armor with their odd metallic appendages.

One of the plasma weapons was pulled off a shoulder, and both arms were torn off as the drone tried to fight. More of the drones outside began to shift their fire, accurately picking off each of the infected climbing over the beleaguered drone. Even that slight shift of fire allowed the horde to close in on the line of defenders. With the inside of the security office cleared of the infected, the eleven undamaged drones turned their attention back toward the horde, barely holding them back.

Seeing an opening, Hugh opened the door and let the damaged drone inside. If it had tried to walk the long way around the building it would have been lost. His maintenance drone went to work on the damaged security drone, but Hugh gave it fresh orders instead. He wanted the maintenance drone to work on securing the damaged door to the back office, and then do whatever repairs it could to the power systems and destroyed turret while they still had access to this part of the building. The damaged security drone stumbled its way into the charging cradle where it could at least keep building up its battery charge while it waited for the maintenance drone’s attention.

Seeing this as a good opportunity to test out his new weapons, Hugh moved toward the window and aimed at the attackers. His plasma carbine tore through the front ranks of enemies, and with his support, the security drones were able to push the infected back. To Hugh, it seemed like the enemy numbers were starting to thin out, so he finished up three magazines with his carbine and then burned through one with his pistol to get a feel for it as well. After that, he made his way back into the security office.

A quick check of the armory revealed that there was a charger for his expended magazines. Hugh plugged them in to begin charging, a slower-than-normal process given the building's power issues. His security drones were down to 22% power, but they were getting the job done. As the enemy numbers thinned, the drones began to rotate some of the units back to recharge while the others held the line. If the enemy numbers picked up, they would quickly rejoin the fight.

Hugh was able to let his maintenance drone work on the outside of the building, where it tracked down more of the power issues they were facing. Within a half hour, the maintenance drone had made enough repairs to get the system up to 97% efficiency, greatly reducing the recharge time each security drone would need. The sounds of plasma weapons firing began to die down as the number of infected dwindled.

It was almost like a switch had been cut off when the infected finally stopped attacking. He could still see a few of the infected moving around inside the nearby buildings, but they weren’t just blindly throwing themselves into the wall of plasma fire that his security drones could throw out. An occasional shot was heard when one of the security drones got a lock on an overeager infected, but for now, they were holding off their human wave attacks.

Hugh wasn’t exactly filled with confidence, he liked the stupid and aggressive nature of the infected, they were easier to predict that way. If they started changing their behavior, getting off the station was going to become a lot more difficult.