War Core 4, Chapter 6.

Chapter 6.

The party pushed through the lightly forested area, moving toward the objective that only Hssim could see. They ran into more groups of the four-armed aliens as they progressed, each a small hunting party of four or five individuals. Hugh tried to join in and assist as much as possible with his knife, not willing to expend any of his precious ammo unless the threat was dire. He had a few rounds left, and it was his only equalizer against his more powerful companions. Even with the enhanced combat training he received when his new body was created and the enhancements the GCA had granted him, Hugh couldn’t hope to match any of his supposed comrades in a melee fight.

As they progressed, Hssim worked out effective tactics for the threat they faced. Hugh was reluctant to admit that Ssath wasn’t just a dumb and aggressive beast, he was cunning and intelligent, which made him far more dangerous than Hugh had first believed. The small parties of aliens could be a threat to the group if they ran upon them unawares, but with Hssim and Dalven, they always spotted or scented the enemy before the enemy even knew they were there.

Vilkrex would lead off with her alien puppets, which she now had two of. She claimed it was the limit of her control for the time being, but maybe when they all received their rewards, she might be able to control more. Seeing a bedraggled pair of their own kind fooled the aliens, allowing the puppets to close in and attack. While the aliens were dealing with the puppets, Blaylock would charge in and hold their attention. The stony, oversized ally had recovered from his earlier wounds rather quickly and could move at full speed, which was the pace of a brisk walk for a human.

With the puppets and Blaylock keeping their attention, Hssim, Dalven, and Vilkrex would charge in, with Hugh and Pasharn covering the group. For the most part, Hugh and Pasharn just made sure that none of the aliens were able to slip away, corralling any that tried to run so the more powerful fighters could take care of them. Once, another group of four aliens charged in while the fight was underway with the first group, answering the shouts for help the aliens seemed to always make when they were attacked. Hugh was forced to fire twice, bringing down a pair of targets while Pasharn finished the other two.

Pasharn seemed to move a bit more sluggishly after the fight and Hugh began to believe the weapon that she used didn’t have ammunition but instead used some excretions from her blob-like body. Hugh didn’t ask, as none of them seemed to trust each other enough to delve more into an explanation of their abilities other than the brief recap they had given when they first met. If Hugh were to guess, he figured that Pasharn could fire about as much as Hugh could before she expended whatever it was that her body produced to power her weapon.

They had been going for over a day without more than a short break in between battles. Hugh was starting to feel fatigued, but not to the point it would affect his ability to fight. If he had been in his old body back home, he would have keeled over with exhaustion long before now. The constant fights had been a drain, but they were also granting them contribution points. Nobody shared how many they had, but Hugh was up to twenty-seven and he could only guess that Hssim, Dalven, and Blaylock were swimming in points given how much of the burden of fighting they had borne.

“Hold up, I hear more fighting ahead, Dalven and I will investigate. We are near to our objective, so the GCA will likely throw an additional obstacle at us,” Hssim said. Hugh and the others waited as the pair went to scout out whatever they had heard. Hugh couldn’t hear anything, but the pair had much more advanced senses than a human or the others that were left behind. They were gone for some time before the pair returned. Hugh couldn’t read Yaelar or Ssath's facial expressions very well, but the two seemed worried.

“What’s going on?” Hugh asked.

“A war, and one we’re going to have to charge straight through the middle of,” Dalven said.

“The Yaelar is right, it appears these mysterious four-armed aliens have gathered an army and are assaulting the entrance to the safe area we need to reach,” Hssim said.

“Who are thy assaulting,” Vilkrex asked.

“Those plant things, like the tree that fought the first aliens we encountered. There’s a whole forest of those things planted in front of the safe zone entrance. At least a dozen block the entrance, and several hundred of the aliens are attacking them. Now, give me time to think, I need to plan our assault,” Hssim said, moving away from the group as he pondered their situation.

“If they’re fighting, why don’t we wait for them to weaken each other like we did before?” Hugh asked.

“That is what we will do, to a certain extent. The problem we face is more complicated, let me share the update on our objective that the GCA sent me when we were on our way back here,” Hssim said, pushing the prompt over to the rest of the group.

You have located the first objective, which is the indicated safe zone. To reach the safe zone you must find a way to fight past the forces protecting it. In addition to battling your way through the defenders, a hostile alien race has tried to lay claim to this area. If they should secure the objective first, your party will immediately enter the second stage of the challenge without the opportunity to rest, heal, or spend your contribution points.

“Okay, so we need to break through to the safe zone before these four-armed guys do. Is there any chance the two sides will grind themselves down to a point where we can just rush in?” Hugh asked.

“That was my thought, and also the reason why it took us some time to return. We could see that those tree-like defenders were tearing apart the alien attackers, who don’t seem willing to quit or even slow down their attacks despite the losses they were suffering. The only thing they had going for them was a constant stream of reinforcements arriving, more small groups like the ones we fought on our way here,” Hssim said.

“Did you scout out how many reinforcements the aliens had?” Blaylock asked.

“We tried, but the supply of enemies seems endless. I don’t think they will run out of reinforcements before the trees are overwhelmed by sheer numbers,” Dalven added. It reminded Hugh of some of the games he had played with Maddison to prepare for training. The game AI would often have scenarios where endless hordes of enemies were spawned, forcing the player into a specific win condition.

“I may have a way to get us close, but it all depends on whether the aliens are thinking individuals instead of just being meat-based computer programs created by the GCA,” Vilkrex said.

“What are you thinking?” Hugh asked.

“My children are learning and becoming better at controlling their hosts. We can now force the puppets to speak, which we can perhaps use to get close, saying we are prisoners being sent to fight the trees for the aliens,” Vilkrex offered.

“It seems a risky plan, but I don’t see another option other than a direct assault. If this only gets us a bit closer to the objective, it will be worth it,” Hssim said. They spent some time going over other options, but sadly, Vilkrex’s plan seemed to be the most viable one they had.

“Now that we have a plan, when do we implement it? Do we wait a while to let them weaken the defender?” Hugh asked.

“We move close to observe, I don’t want to risk them breaking through before we strike, but I also don’t favor our chances of fighting past the tree creatures while the aliens are attacking us from behind,” Hssim said.

The group moved forward, trying to go as slow as they could. Hssim seemed annoyed at the amount of noise they all made, but Hugh felt the growing sounds of the battle were enough to cover their approach. The forest broke up their line of sight, and when they finally got close enough to view the battle, Hugh could see there was quite a bit of open territory to cover before they reached the objective.

Hugh wasn’t sure what he had expected, but the objective seemed kind of underwhelming. It was just a concrete bunker with a steel door as the only entrance. A glowing touchpad near the door would likely confirm they could enter. Surrounding the bunker was a swarm of the tree creatures along with dozens of the smaller bunches of the leech twigs spaced out between their fully-grown kin. The trees were swinging their limbs at a swarm of alien attackers.

The aliens were slowly cutting their way through the defenders, but for now, the leech twigs and trees were keeping them from the objective. Hugh and the others settled in and watched the battle unfold. Around a hundred aliens were attacking, and a constant stream of small groups entered the battlefield as the fighting progressed. Sometimes, the losses among the aliens were too great and they pulled back to rebuild their numbers before continuing the assault. When that happened, the tree creatures used their appendages to feed on the fallen. Hugh could see the wounds hacked into the trees slowly heal as they fed.

Despite their ability to heal, the constant battle was going against the defenders, and the aliens cut a slow and steady path through the monstrous trees. Hssim shifted the position they were hiding in after a bit, some of the reinforcements were arriving close to where they were hiding, and they didn’t want to be spotted before they were ready. It would make for a longer run to the objective, but it couldn’t be helped. When the aliens had cut through all but the last few trees between them and the objective, Hssim ordered them to go.

Vilkrex ordered one puppet to the front of the group and the other to move to the rear, trying to make it look like they were herding the party as a group of prisoners toward the objective. At first, the aliens didn’t react, but when the group got within a hundred yards of the objective, one of the alien leaders shouted over. Hugh couldn’t understand the language of the aliens, the GCA’s universal translator had excluded it for some reason, but Vilkrex’s young were able to understand it and shouted back. Whatever they argued bought them only a few more steps before the aliens started shouting and a large group of reinforcements charged the party.

“Send the puppets forward, Hugh and Pasharn will cut down the ones pursuing us. Spare nothing, use all your resources, we need to break through,” Hssim ordered. The party charged forward, running at the best group pace, which wasn’t too fast given Blaylock’s speed and the fact that Hugh and Pasharn had to stop a shoot every few steps. The others attacked the horde of aliens assaulting the defenders, cutting through the confused aliens who were trying to figure out why strangers and some of their kin were attacking.

Hugh concentrated on his job, lining up his pistol and firing round after round into the pursuing aliens. Hssim had chosen a good time, the number of aliens currently assaulting the trees was thinned out and the party hit them before the latest wave of reinforcements got there. It was good timing for the party, but it left a whole bunch of angry aliens charging toward Hugh. It seemed like only moments before his weapon fired the last round, the slide locking back to let Hugh know he was out of ammo.

“I’m out!” Hugh shouted over the din of battle. He risked a glance back and could see that Hssim and Dalven were a blur of claws and teeth, tearing through the last of the aliens, while Blaylock hammered his stony fist into one of the trees, his blow shattering through the bark and turned the insides of the monster into pulp. The limbs from other trees slammed into Blaylock’s rocky hide, but he was ready this time and before the limbs could burrow past his skin, the giant would rip them free.

“I’m out as well!” Pasharn shouted. Hugh holstered his pistol and drew his combat knife. Pasharn didn’t have a melee weapon, but he could see a sheen of gelatinous matter cover the hands of the suit as part of the strange alien oozed through it to form a makeshift weapon of sorts. The two puppets were already down, killed early in the fighting, and Vilkrex moved to assist Hugh and Pasharn as the others battled through the last of the aliens and the tree defenders.

“We’re almost through, hold them back,” Hssim shouted back.

Hugh readied himself, as a pair of aliens reached their makeshift defensive line. With reactions he couldn’t hope to match in his old body, Hugh brushed aside the jab of a spear from one of the aliens facing him. He stepped in close to hammer his blade into the alien’s neck, barely holding onto the blade as the alien pummeled him with his fists. A burning pain and a forceful blow slammed into Hugh’s side. The other alien facing him had hammered a dagger into his ribs, and before it could pull out the blade, one of Vilkrex’s scythe-like arms swept in and severed the alien’s hand.

Hugh fell to his knees, feebly trying to defend himself with the knife while he watched blood pouring out from around the blade that was sticking in his side. His foggy mind noted that the alien’s hand was still attached to the blade, and the sight horrified him more than if it was just the knife itself. Claws cut the back of Hugh’s neck as someone dragged him back. He tried to swipe his knife behind him, but there was no strength in the blow, and whoever was dragging him easily plucked the blade from his grasp. Hugh waited for the death blow to arrive, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he was being dragged toward the objective.

“Hold on, Hugh, we’re almost there,” Dalven said. Hugh’s ability to process what was happening faded out from the blood loss. His vision started to go as he heard the metal door to the bunker slide open. A system prompt appeared just as Hugh lost consciousness.

Congratulations, you have reached the first objective. This is a safe zone, and you will be allowed a 24-hour rest period. Your rewards have been placed in the supply chest, and you may spend your contribution points on upgrades.