War Core Wednesday! War Core 4, Chapter 5.

Chapter 5.

The group stood there confused as the ceiling of the compartment they were in opened and the walls retracted into the ground. From what Hssim had told them, Hugh and the others were expecting a fight inside different compartments of a large structure. Instead of what they expected, the room opened into a hilly, forested area with strange trees that gave off a faint green glow. A system prompt appeared to explain a bit more about the challenge they were facing.

You will face a series of challenges that increase in difficulty the further you progress. For the first stage of the challenge, you will seek the entrance to the underground facility that holds a safe zone and resupply options for your group. Your leader has been given the location of your objective.

“Where are we heading Hssim?” Dalven asked, the rest of the group trying to watch in every direction for potential enemies.

“This way, to the north, through the forest is our objective. I have two paths highlighted in my interface. One is slower but safer, and the other is more difficult but offers greater rewards. Which should we choose?” Hssim asked.

“The system said the challenges would increase the further we progressed. Since this is the beginning, it might be the best time to choose the more difficult option and secure the extra rewards before things become too difficult,” Hugh offered.

“This one agrees, it is also the faster route according to what you said, Hssim, and completing this challenge promptly may reduce the overall risk,” Vilkrex added.

“Fine, we go the short route. Blaylock will lead and I will assist him. Hugh and Pasharn will follow, with Dalven and Vilkrex bringing up the rear. The forest isn’t too dense, but we should still be on the lookout for attackers. This is very different from what I experienced in the individual challenge, so there could be just about anything out there to attack us,” Hssim said, leading the group along the supposedly more difficult path toward their objective.

Hugh noted that Hssim didn’t bother to share the path with the rest of them, and he doubted the GCA restricted the Ssath from sharing, it was more likely that Hssim just wanted to keep some extra control over the group. None were likely to pull anything this early in the challenge, but if Hssim could remain the sole person who knew their destination, the group would have no choice but to do as he said.

“Beware, a trap!” Blaylock shouted as he stumbled to his knees. The ground shook as Blaylock landed, and Hugh looked at his feet to make sure he wasn’t about to hit a tripwire or a trigger of some sort.

“Not a trap, you fool, it's some kind of creature, kill it already,” Hssim hissed back at the rock-covered giant. Using the oversized claws at his feet, Hssim slashed at something on the ground in front of him. What looked like a pile of twigs that had fallen from the trees turned out to be a living creature. It didn’t chase Hssim and seemed incapable of moving more than a short distance to strike at its target.

Hugh scanned the ground around him, pistol out and ready to fire. There wasn’t anything near him, but Dalven did have a similar pile of twigs close to his feet, and he slowly backed away from it before entering its attack range. Blaylock grunted in pain and began to pull at the twigs that had now wrapped themselves completely around his foot. Hugh could see the twigs pulsing and squirming around the limb but couldn’t see exactly how they were hurting the seemingly impervious alien.

Having hacked his target to pieces, Hssim moved to assist Blaylock, using his claws to cut at the twigs. Hugh holstered his pistol and joined in with his knife. The green metal blade easily cut through the twigs. Now that he was up close, the things looked less like a bunch of twigs and more like a mass of snakes or worms covered in bark and well camouflaged to match its environment. The things were attached to something deeper in the ground, something Hugh didn’t want to meet.

With a rumble of anger, Blaylock dug his hands into the mess of twigs and pulled hard. Nothing happened at first, then with a sickening pop, the mass of twigs was yanked out of the ground. The giant backed away from where he had been attacked, several of the twigs still attached to his leg. He began to pull at the attached snake-twig things, but his oversized, rocky fingers made the work difficult.

“Help me get these out, they're still trying to eat me,” Blaylock said. Hugh grabbed one of the twigs, noticing that it had somehow burrowed its way through Blaylock’s rocky exterior and was deeply embedded itself into his foot. With some effort, the snake-like creature pulled out, a grayish fluid dripping freely from the wound in Blaylock’s foot. The end of the twig flopped around in Hugh’s hand, and he could see a leech-like mouth was the cause of the damage to his comrade.

With the others helping, they soon cleaned off Blaylock’s foot, but over a dozen holes had been burrowed through his exterior stone, and the giant was only able to walk slowly and was in a lot of pain. It was probably good that the monster had attacked Blaylock, Hugh was pretty sure he wouldn’t have survived an attack by that thing, the leech twigs, as he now thought of them, would have easily burrowed their way through his soft body, causing Hugh to bleed out.

“Hugh, switch places with Blaylock. Keep your primitive chemical slug thrower at the ready and watch your step,” Hssim ordered. Hugh just nodded and moved up to the front of the group with the Ssath. They pushed on, spotting a few more of the leech twig monsters lurking in the underbrush, but now that they knew what to look for, the threat wasn’t that great.

Hssim kept a slow but steady pace through the woods, trying to be cautious but not slow them down too much. Hugh figured it was risky to go too slowly, there were more than likely additional threats lurking in the woods, ones that were more mobile than the leech twigs. All of a sudden, Hssim halted, pushing Hugh back as he cocked his head and listened.

“Someone is fighting up ahead, directly on the path we need to take. I’ll move up and observe, stay here, and stay quiet,” Hssim said. Hugh didn’t like waiting behind, but he had to admit the Ssath moved like a ghost, pushing rapidly through the undergrowth while making hardly a sound. Several minutes passed before he returned, waving the others forward.

“What’s going on?” Hugh asked.

“Another group is ahead; several aliens of a type I do not know. They’re fighting with the grown version of the things that attacked Blaylock. We’ll move forward and wait for one side to emerge victorious, then we strike,” Hssim ordered.

“Wait, another group? I thought you were the only one who figured out this challenge even existed,” Hugh asked.

“I thought I was, but maybe once we joined the challenge, the GCA allowed others inside, or maybe they’re all GCA-created creatures. I don’t know, but I do know that we need to win this, or we’re all doomed. Put aside your weakness and concern. Become a true warrior and strike all who stand in your way,” Hssim argued.

“Very well, lead on,” Hugh said. He didn’t want to admit it, but the Ssath was right. The existence of all their species and countless others rode on them being successful. If others had joined the challenge, they were unlikely to know the true prize that the Ssath had discovered and if the others won, they would choose some reward other than the destruction of the GCA and doom the universe to a slow death.

They crept forward, much less stealthy than Hssim had been on his own, but the forces battling in front of them were too distracted to notice. Hiding behind a tree, Hugh peeked around the corner to observe the fight that was taking place. A tree-sized leech twig was flailing its appendages at a group of a half-dozen humanoids. The humanoids were about seven feet tall, muscular, and had four arms. They all wore a jumpsuit uniform of some sort, but it didn’t appear armored given that several more of their number were lying on the ground with leech-twig appendages burrowed deep inside them.

The humanoids were armed with simple melee weapons, spears, axes, and swords that they put to good use against the monster they faced. None of the aliens spoke or shouted commands to each other, and their almost robotic movements made Hugh believe these were GCA creations and not some other group of challengers. The fact they had originally started with a larger group than six, and that all were the same species further supported Hugh’s theory that these were GCA-created. Perhaps copies of a species that existed, but just clones wired into the system, not free-thinking beings.

“Hugh, Pasharn, move up into the effective range of your weapons. The rest of us will form up nearby and attack once one side has defeated the other,” Hssim ordered. The forest was becoming sparser the further they traveled, and they had stopped about a hundred yards away from the fracas. Hugh wasn’t going to hit much with a pistol at this range so he crept forward, using whatever cover he could, while also keeping an eye out for leech twigs lying in wait.

He wasn’t exactly quiet in his approach, but Pasharn was probably worse, her suit giving off a plastic crinkly sound as she moved. It was a sound he normally wouldn’t have noticed, but one that seemed horribly loud when they were trying to sneak up on a foe. One of the aliens gave a shriek of pain as a pair of limbs from the giant leech twig hit him and burrowed in. The others redoubled their efforts to hack apart the monster, which was moving much slower than before and seemed to be losing strength as more and more of the twigs were severed from the main body.

Hugh stopped at a tree about twenty-five yards from the fight, a distance he was confident he could score hits at. Normally, Hugh wasn’t all that great a shot, but the body that had been created for him had all the necessary skills downloaded into his mind. He figured he was about as competent as a special forces operative, which was a good feeling considering the threats all around him. He didn’t trust any of his companions, save for Dalven, and worried that one or more of them would betray the others at some point. He could only stay alert and hope the common threat kept everyone in line.

Without a final death cry, the giant leech twig finally collapsed, its appendages still attached to its last victim who looked like he had been sucked dry by the monster. The other aliens gathered up the weapons and gear from the fallen, while one inspected the corpse of the leech twig.

“Attack them, Hugh, before they spot you,” Dalven whispered behind him. Looking over, Pasharn was already sighting in on one of the aliens and Hugh did the same, resting the iron sights of his pistol over the nearest target. Centered on the alien’s chest, Hugh moved the pistol up slightly to compensate for bullet drop at this range and pressed the trigger with slow, steady pressure.

The boom and recoil of the pistol surprised him, but not enough to throw Hugh off his game. His target was pushed back by the impact of the round, which punched a large hole in the alien’s chest. Hugh didn’t know if their vital organs were in the same place, but something important must have been located where the round tore through the creature. The alien fell and didn’t look like he was going to get back up. His sights landed on a second target, only to see a thin stream of liquid hit it as Pasharn fired on the alien Hugh was now targeting.

Instead of blasting a hole in the target, the liquid from Pasharn’s weapon simply melted through it almost instantly. It wasn’t quite as quick as the slug that Hugh’s weapon fired, but it seemed just as effective at dropping the target. Looking over the battlefield, The remaining aliens were all engaged in melee with the other members of his group. Hugh’s hesitation had allowed Pasharn to drop two targets to his one, but Hugh was glad he had at least been able to contribute to the fight in some way.

He watched the others fight, Dalven and Hssim had their targets well in hand, both were deadly foes up close, and despite having four arms, the aliens didn’t seem nearly as skilled as Hugh’s comrades. Only Blaylock was without a target, having moved too slowly to join the fight before it was over. Vilkrex had a different style entirely, she had taken a wound to the abdomen by her target, one holding a spear. But she now seemed to be standing next to her foe without a care in the world. The alien was still alive but he just stood there with a blank look in his eyes.

“Is he a threat?” Hugh asked, gesturing toward the alien as he walked to rejoin the others.

“No, my hatchling is controlling him for now,” Vilkrex said, pointing with her scythe-like arms to the back of the alien’s head. A tiny version of Vilkrex was latched onto the alien, her arms burrowed into the alien’s head.

“Odd, but effective, is that thing dangerous?” Hssim asked, observing Vilkrex’s victim.

“It’s still dangerous, but not us. My hatchling is in total control, at least until she feeds too much and destroys her puppet,” Vilkrex said. Hugh had no idea where the mini-Vilkrex had come from, and he made it a point to stay well away from the insect. Having hatchlings burrow into your skull and use you as both a puppet and lunch seemed like just about the worst way to go. At least she was on his side.

“I received a prompt that I must share with you all. Gather anything you might want from the fallen, and let’s continue our quest,” Hssim ordered. The system prompt appeared before Hugh; it looked like the GCA had a bit of a different reward system in place than what Hssim told them he had encountered in his last challenge.

Congratulations on defeating your first group of foes. Contribution points have been earned. When you reach a safe area, you may exchange your contribution points for personal resources and rewards. Defeat your enemies and grow stronger.

You have been awarded 5 contribution points.