War Core 3, Chapter 52.

Chapter 52.

Congratulations! You have successfully defended your command post. The humans have secured enough conquest points to emerge victorious in this battle. As a result of this victory, Ssath forces are unable to take offensive action against any human or Krixnas-controlled system for a period of one year.

Your core will return home once the final calculations are complete.

Post-battle calculations are commencing.

Reward Point Calculations:

Base reward: 25 points.

Victory bonus: 100 points.

Observation bonus: 100 points.

Performance bonus: 100.

Total points awarded: 325.

War Core Termination Calculation:

Base chance for termination: 0.0001%.

Failure penalty: none.

Loss penalty: none.

Victory enhancement: Active.

Effectiveness rating: Excellent.

Effectiveness penalty or enhancement: A moderate decrease in lethality is active.

Observer rating: Excellent.

Observer penalty or enhancement: A modest decrease in lethality is granted.

Bonuses to survivability: none.

Combat pod lethality: active.

Reward point total: 475/1500.

Congratulations, you have survived this campaign. Victory rewards are pending current negotiations between the various factions involved in this conflict.

Hugh had survived again, but his emotions were mixed. He was relieved at their victory, but they only had another year of protection from the Ssath, not nearly long enough as far as Hugh was concerned. Worry over the losses mounted, especially given how every human core was involved in the campaign. There was also the threat to civilians, a cost that could be very high depending on how the GCA decided to adjudicate that aspect.

His vision flew away from the stand-in world that had been created for the conflict, and back toward his real home. Stars whipped past in a blur, eventually slowing as Hugh’s consciousness entered Earth’s solar system. As he passed by Mars, Hugh couldn’t help but wonder what the Krixnas thought of their new home. After the initial exhilaration of surviving a horrible war, did the Krixnas begin to miss their old world? They weren’t exactly an emotionally expressive race from what Hugh had seen, but he had only dealt with the other cores, and maybe they were quite different from regular civilian Krixnas. Thoughts about the Krixnas were interrupted as he linked with his core in the base under the oil rig.

“Hugh, can you hear me?” Admiral Nix asked as Hugh returned to the base once more.

“Yes, sir, I’m back. We won, but how much did it cost us?” Hugh asked, taking time to look around the base, watching as combat pods began to open, at least those pods that held survivors.

“It didn’t cost as much as it would have been if you’d lost, but bad enough. I’ll get you the final figures once we gather all the data, it may take some time with so many cores involved,” Nix replied.

The admiral stood silently next to Hugh’s core, and Hugh appreciated the quiet companionship of the officer. He searched the base for the other officers involved in the battle, happy to see Maddison had returned unscathed. Both Cartwright and Tran survived the casualty selection, which was good since Hugh didn’t want to repeat the loss of Tremaine. Pods continued to open, the process taking a while since the base was nearly full for this campaign.

“Seems like the loss percentage is down from a normal victory, but that doesn’t make it any better, does it?” The admiral said as the last survivor was pulled from their pod, and the medics began to collect those who hadn’t been so lucky. Nix was right, Hugh knew the overall loss percentage was better than normal, but that didn’t help those poor soldiers that were killed by the GCA’s calculation. Anger welled in him, the Ssath had brought this death to his doorstep, but it was the GCA that was the architect of the whole rotten system.

“We need to debrief,” Admiral Nix ordered after the last casualty was taken away. It was bad enough dealing with it here, and Hugh knew the process was being repeated all around the country and all around the world. Everyone was trying to appear upbeat as they assembled in the conference room, but it was hard to see such an up-close reminder of the cost of the game the GCA was forcing them to play.

“Everything we know is preliminary so far, but I’ll share what I have,” said Markum, their intel liaison. He looked around the table, gathering his thoughts before continuing.

“Very well, first off, well fought everyone. Hugh, you and George Lucin, the Canadian core, were the last two standing and George managed to grind down the enemy on his rather elaborate defenses just a bit before you won your fight. We spent most of our planet’s resource points on bonuses for the various cores, but with this win, we can refill the influence point reserves. For now, the word is that we’re going to spend conservatively for a while, so don’t expect too much help if you’re going right back into another campaign,” Marcum said.

“What about the other species that funded the fight? I know the Yaelar spent resources to help me, and frankly, I don’t think I’d have won if they hadn’t. There was also another anonymous donor that helped a bit as well,” Hugh said.

“We had a lot of anonymous donations, and unless the donors choose to reveal themselves, there’s not much we can do to thank them. I suppose stopping the Ssath and forcing them to burn through their resources is enough of a reward for most of them. As for the Yaelar, we’re reaching out to try and smooth things over, even to the point of voluntarily surrendering one of our systems that border their worlds as an apology for how we dealt with them,” Marcum said.

“Good, because the help I received was all from Dalven, who felt he owed me for helping to save him from the combat trial. His government made it clear that this was only for my efforts, and that humanity was most definitely not in their good graces,” Hugh said.

“Yes, I’m not part of the Yaelar negotiations, but I’m optimistic we can work something out. Negotiations are also ongoing with many of the other factions that border our worlds. If we can hash out some kind of binding agreement that the GCA will honor, maybe we can stop some of these wars before they start,” Marcum said.

“Just how many have resumed hostilities with us?” Nix asked. With the Ssath situation settled, for now, Hugh’s sector should be pretty quiet unless the Yaelar declared war on them.

“So far, only a few of the minor factions are actively seeking our territory. It seems our win over the Ssath has given some of them pause, we beat the biggest, most aggressive species in our sector of space, so the others realize we’re not easy pickings despite being new to the game. Well, it looks like our first negotiations have just borne fruit, let me share the data, this is good news,” Marcum said, pushing the file he must have just received from his tablet to the others in the room.

A pact of non-aggression has been forged between the Humans and the Ximkas. For a period of five years, both factions agree to refrain from any hostile invasions of the other party’s territory.

Congratulations, your faction has signed a non-aggression pact with the Ximkas. While this is only a temporary peace, some consideration is given to all cores that border territory with the Ximkas.

You have received 25 reward points.

Current reward point total: 500/1500.

“Take a look at this, I just received a GCA system notice for the peace treaty,” Hugh said, sharing the information.

“Woah, okay, this changes things. We didn’t know our cores could benefit from the treaty. I need to get this information out, give me a moment,” Marcum said, tapping away at his tablet.

“I didn’t get my rewards from the GCA for the campaign yet, do you think its because negotiations with the Ssath are still underway, maybe if we forge some kind of peace, we’ll get a reward for it?” Hugh asked.

“Maybe, there’s a lot we don’t know yet, it seems all the cores involved are seeing the same thing,” Marcum said.

“I suppose waiting on a reward isn’t so bad if the delay is because we might secure a better peace deal with our neighbors,” Hugh said.

“Peace deals and non-aggression pacts aside, we need to keep training and preparing. Hope for the best people, but keep your powder dry,” Nix said, summing up exactly what Hugh was feeling. He was hopeful that there might be some way out of this existence other than fighting battle after battle for however many centuries it might take to earn enough reward points to rebuild his body and retire from the fight. Looking around the table at the team as they each took a turn to give their debrief, Hugh was confident in one thing. No matter what new threat or old enemy showed up from the depths of space, the human war cores were ready and able to defend humanity.