War Core 3, Chapter 51.

I made some tweaks to the parameters of the final campaign for Hugh since it felt like the Ssath didn't have enough of a reason to assault the victory points instead of just piling onto the command post. You'll see the changes in the final manuscript when the book goes live, but just to give quick overview, each victory point that Hugh's forces hold now power the shield around his command post. 

With all ten under a core's control control, the shield is incredibly powerful. It can still be taken down, but it would take a long time and allow the core to build more defenders, not to mention freeing up the forces at the victory points to counterattack. With the victory points helping to power the shield as well as provide resources to Hugh, the Ssath are much more likely to target them first. 

Chapter 51.

“All our production lines are back in business. I want you to send a scouting force to each victory point, let’s see if we can retake them,” Hugh ordered. There were still Ssath out there but as the hours passed, it became apparent that they had gone to ground, hiding until the other fleet could arrive with reinforcements. Hugh had begun to wonder if the enemy fleet had changed course back to earth since they hadn’t shown up on the Krixnas stations’ sensors yet.

Whoever was controlling the Krixnas defenders must have been getting antsy as well, choosing to send out a small flotilla consisting of a pair of frigates and a cruiser. The Krixnas were building a balanced fleet, which made sense given Hugh’s previous experience when fighting against the species. They were methodical and often predictable, but they were efficient and the stations in orbit around Mars showed that. They were now at tier seven and larger than the human stations. Hugh could only hope that meant they packed more firepower. It took longer to build a starship than a main battle mech, but their little fleet was still growing by the hour.

You have retaken control of the Los Angeles County Museum victory point. Since this point was previously lost, its resource generation is halved, and its shield bonus contribution is halved. The previous improvements purchased by the anonymous observer are no longer active. Please note that if this point is captured again, it will be permanently destroyed.

Good, they were able to retake control of victory points, but losing them in the first place caused a penalty to resource generation. It was more than fair in Hugh’s eyes, though he would miss the mammoth mech supporting the defenders there. With the point coming back under his control, the shield over his command post reappeared, giving Hugh just a bit more survivability. Given that they risked losing them again permanently, Hugh reinforced the recon unit of two infantry mechs that had arrived at the victory point. It was only a handful of additional infantry, but it was all they could spare at the moment.

“We need to take the other points, but not until we’re sure we can hold them. As soon as our defenses here and at the museum are in place, we’ll start spreading out again,” Hugh ordered.

“I don’t think the Ssath are organized or numerous enough to pull off a counterattack aimed at the victory points just yet, but I think we need to play it conservative since we’ve got some time to work with,” Tran agreed. Captain Cartwright was leading the forces hunting down the Ssath holdouts, while Hugh had Tran to help organize the defenders that were coming online.

“The police and automated factory are a write-off, but those cops sure came through when we needed them,” Tran said. He was going to miss the extra free units, and the Ssath had made sure to destroy both buildings during their assault.

Hugh’s army grew as the hours passed. The additional construction drones breing produced finished repairs of the command post and started working on the bunkers surrounding the command post. A lone construction drone had been built at the museum and was starting repairs there. The victory point had only come back online with the structure at 5% durability, so it was a bit nerve-wracking waiting for the badly damaged place to get the first drone out. Hugh had no direct control over the victory points, the drones there just followed their AI programming. At least that programming included repairing the main structure before doing anything else.

“Hugh, look over at the Krixnas stations, you see the ships?” Tran said. Hugh shifted his focus over and noted a force of about thirty gunboats was approaching the Krixnas. Hugh could have sworn all the human ships had been destroyed in the earlier fighting and figured that maybe the human government had spent some of their last reward points, or perhaps another species had donated them to the cause. However, they happened to get there, the ships didn’t waste any time and were already dropping mines in the projected path of the Ssath fleet.

By the time the Ssath fleet finally arrived, Hugh had rebuilt the bunkers at the command post and built up a reasonable force to defend it. All the victory points had been reacquired and with their additional resource flow, Hugh was producing units at a good pace. Any resources that came in from salvaging work, went toward upgrades as well as more fixed defenses and turrets at the command post. He was a bit shocked to see that the Queen Mary victory point was just an empty dock, the ruined ship was already picked apart into salvage by his drones, and the GCA hadn’t seen fit to rebuild one. Instead, a simple fortified dockyard building served as the focus of the victory point. More Ssath had been hunted down in the city, but they gave up looking for the last few, and once they had more forces, Hugh would start patrolling to make sure the score or so of enemy survivors didn’t cause too many problems.

“You’d think they’d have learned by now,” Cartwright commented as the Ssath fleet blundered into the first minefield. They probably had learned, but the enemy no longer possessed any fighters or lighter warships to perform scouting operations. Cruisers had been pressed into service, and they were taking a beating, and even the battleships were taking a few hits from mines that were keyed to specific targets. With the whole force inside the minefield, Hugh was able to get an accurate count of the enemy fleet.

Ssath Order of Battle.

Frigates: 0.

Destroyers: 0.

Cruisers: 178.

Battleships: 183.

Starfighters: 0.

It was still a lot of ships, but Hugh noted that many were damaged, reminding him that the Ssath had no way to gather more resources to effect repairs so once they took damage and whatever repair supplies on board were exhausted, the ships just had to operate at less than full capacity. For a while, the powerful shields on the ships absorbed the mine hits, and they only took substantial damage to a few of the scouting cruisers, or when a ship happened to trip multiple mines at once. To oppose the Ssath fleet, the Krixnas had a modest force that wasn’t likely lot stand up to the enemy for very long, even with the support of the six stations. They did have a large fighter force that had launched earlier and would be able to strike soon.

Krixnas Order of Battle.

Gunboats: 31.

Frigates: 87.

Destroyers: 28.

Cruisers: 22.

Light Carriers: 2.

Fleet Carriers: 1.

Battleships: 11.

Starfighters: 3200.

The initial starfighter strikes were good news for the Krixnas, the fighters tore apart the lead cruisers in their first attack, and they had time to rearm for a second strike. Losses were high among the fighters, but the stations and carriers were constantly producing more. With the second strike, the fighters took out most of the enemy cruisers. They returned to rearm, but Hugh didn’t think there would be time to finish up before the Ssath struck.

A massive wave of missiles streaked out from the Ssath fleet and a few minutes later a second wave was launched. The Krixnas responded but had fewer launchers than the Ssath, so it was a one-sided fight. Unable to rearm most of the fighters before the missile waves arrived, the Krixnas opted to do what the human pilots had done and turned their starfighters into weapons.

Missiles hammered home on each side and the Krixnas fighters dove into the nearest enemy ship. When the second volley of missiles from the Ssath fleet arrived, the Krixnas were wiped out, but not before giving the Ssath fleet more losses. In addition to the losses, most of the Ssath ships were damaged to some extent. Hugh hoped that the damage would also reduce the number of drop pods each ship carried, but the GCA hadn’t gone into enough detail about that.

The last of the space-based defenses allied to the humans have been destroyed. The remaining Ssath fleet can now approach Earth and drop their forces without fear. All remaining mines and defensive placements in space are now inert. Human cores that have already achieved victory are safe from further invasion. The forces that would have been used to invade the victorious human cores are now sidelined for the rest of the campaign.

That was a mixed bag of news. Hugh would have liked to see more Ssath ships taken out when they blundered into the random mines that had been strewn all over Krixnas space, but it looked like the GCA was going to give them a free ride to earth. On the other hand, Hugh didn’t have to worry about the entire Ssath invasion force coming down on only a few human cores. With the forces that would have been assigned to the victorious cores sidelined, Hugh felt very good about their chances to defeat the remaining Ssath.

The Ssath fleet was moving slowly, and they seemed to want to stick together rather than send the lightly damaged ships forward. It made sense given that they would want every mech they could get into their invasion force rather than have the mech trickle in during the fight. After the losses the Ssath had taken against the Krixnas, the reinforcing Ssath fleet was much smaller than the initial invasion fleet had been. The numbers would be even worse for the Ssath if the damaged ships were given a lower troop capacity.

Things were quiet for several days as the Ssath fleet approached. During that time, Hugh rebuilt his forces past the numbers that he had needed to repel the first invasion. He had also reached tier eight and had enough resources to pour into upgrades for his units. When the Ssath arrived, they would be fewer in number and face a much stronger force of defenders.

The final Ssath invasion fleet has arrived, and drop pods will be launching shortly. With the new arrival, bombardments are once again available for the Ssath, and the bombardment count stands at 3 for the forces attacking your core.

Hugh watched as the new ships slipped into orbit, taking position over the remaining cores in the conflict. He had learned his lesson in the first fight and his forces were all inside the exclusion zone around the command post and each victory point. The debris from mostly intact mechs had been propped up in several open areas as bait, but Hugh had no idea if the ruse would fool the enemy sensors. Drop pods began to eject from the Ssath ships in orbit, and bombardments hit all around the city, the Ssath throwing away two of their three bombardments to hit the decoy locations.

“Not that many, eight pods for each victory point, and a dozen or so around the command post,” Cartwright noted.

The enemy attacked aggressively, but Hugh’s forces were now a tier higher in quality than the Ssath. Fighting from prepared defensive positions and supported by automated turrets, further improved Hugh’s ability to fight off the enemy. His troops, every one of them experienced and comfortable fighting from their current positions, cut down the Ssath invaders. The first wave of the attack was pushed back easily with minimal losses to Hugh’s troops. It was almost like the Ssath were unwilling to take many losses and broke off all their attacks before sustaining too many casualties. After failing to take any of the victory points in their first push, the Ssath forces began to gather around the command post, preparing to give one last effort to destroy Hugh with the remnants of their forces.

A quick check of the conquest point total showed that Hugh’s fight for Los Angeles might very well be the one that secured victory for the campaign, or lost it if the Ssath were somehow able to eke out a win. It looked like the Ssath had taken the conquest points for the Krixnas stations, but the long trip there and back had allowed more of the human cores to win victory here on the ground. Just one other core and Hugh’s were still fighting, and humanity needed to win both these fights if they were to survive.

Conquest Points.

Humanity: 67/137.

Ssath: 68/137.

“They’re coming for the command post, and combined, they may have the numbers to fight through our defenses. I’m going to need everyone to counterattack on the heels of the enemy forces, we’ll take a beating from the orbital bombardments, but they can hit all our troops,” Hugh ordered.

With all the victory points still in Hugh’s control, the command post was well defended by its powerful shield. While the shield bonus provided by the victory points was only half its previous strength, it would still take the Ssath some time to batter their way through. The Ssath continued to gather their surviving forces, and it looked like just over eight hundred mechs were going to hit the northern part of his defenses, with a slightly larger force of Ssath moving in from the west.

Another pair of infantry mechs walked out of the command post alongside a light mech before the enemy was in position and ready to make their move. At each of the victory points, human mechs began to stream toward the command post, spreading out and using empty structures for cover when they could. A small covering force of a few infantry remained at each victory point, but from what Hugh could see, the Ssath no longer had the forces left to contest them and win the fight at the command post. As soon as his forces left the safety of the protected zones, blasts of light speared down from space, tearing into his mechs. The Ssath fleet only had one bombardment’s worth of firepower available, and it spread the attack out, prioritizing their targeting on main battle mechs and light mechs, both of which were too large to hide their presence from the enemy fleet’s scanners.

When the last blast of the bombardment had been fired, Hugh’s forces were gutted. All the main battle mechs from the victory points were gone, and he could only see a pair of damaged light mechs still showing as online, but immobile. His infantry had taken a beating, over three hundred were still operational and proceeding with their counterattack. The Ssath didn’t react to the counterattack, lacking enough mechs to send out a blocking force and still take on Hugh’s command post and the firepower of the defensive bunkers.

The command post had all its automated machineguns back in action, as well as eight light cannon turrets spread out along the line. Reaching tier eight had also improved his minefield abilities, and while most of the construction drones had been needed for repairs and rebuilds after the last Ssath push, a few had spread a thin layer of mines in front of the bunkers. While each bunker had taken a few casualties in the earlier fight, they housed more than enough infantry to put up a wall of fire that was even now slamming into the lead Ssath.

Enemy light mechs led the attack, sacrificing themselves to the brutal firepower of the human defenses to give their infantry mechs as much cover to close in as they could. The Ssath were always fierce, but now they moved with even more aggression, desperate to break his defenses and with the fight. Hugh’s troops were just as aggressive, giving no ground and ignoring losses as Tran and Cartwright shifted every mech they could to reinforce the northern and western sides of the bunker line where the enemy was concentrated. Mines exploded among the lead Ssath infantry, but they ignored the losses. Most of the Ssath targetd the nearest bunkers while others moved directly to engage the command post.

The mechs inside the bunkers concentrated on the Ssath attacking the command post, ignoring the enemy that were tearing their way inside. Troops from the south and east threw themselves at the enemy, charging into melee to buy Hugh more time. As soon as the Ssath had line of sight on Hugh’s command post, every weapon on the enemy mechs began to fire. The enemy only mounted light caliber weapons on their infantry, but hundreds of rounds were hitting each second and the shield around his command post glowed a bright blue under the constant fire.

Leading Ssath infantry began to claw and bite at the shield, Hugh’s machineguns cut them down in droves and the fire from the nearby bunkers tore the enemy apart before they could get more than a few swipes in. His troops from the east and south were going down quickly, the Ssath were pure murder at close range. To make things worse, the nearest bunkers to the enemy had gone silent as the Ssath broke their way in and tore apart the defenders inside. A string of grenades blew back the Ssath nearest to the command post and Tran led a small band of reinforcements to stand between Hugh and the attackers. Cartwright also moved to block the enemy, personally piloting the last main battle mech the defenders possessed.

Looking over the battlefield, Hugh could see mounds of dead Ssath mechs surrounding the nearby bunkers. His troops were giving everything they had, and the Ssath forces, once an impossibly large horde of an enemy, were thinned out, and Hugh could see gaps in their attack that were no longer filled in by newly arriving units. With a pop, the shield around his core failed and the incoming fire began to burn into the structure. Tran, in control of one of the infantry mechs, moved like a whirlwind, using a combat axe and firing every weapon on his mech. He shattered Ssath after Ssath, but there were too many, and when an enemy unit finally got its teeth into the infantry commander’s mech, it was ripped apart.

Cartwright faced a similar fate, his main battle mech was a magnet for the enemy infantry who tried desperately to destroy the final large mech that was cutting down so many of their kin. More figures began to stream from the city into the cleared area around Hugh’s command post. His mind was losing concentration from the incoming damage, and it took him a moment to realize these new troops were the infantry from the victory points and not further Ssath reinforcements. The surviving defenders redoubled their efforts, and the Ssath were now the ones outnumbered. Three hundred human infantry tore through the rear ranks of the Ssath.

Between the surviving defenders and the counterattack, the Ssath forces melted away. The enemy never gave up and each Ssath mech spent its last moments clawing and firing at the command post that they were just not able to bring down. Hugh’s structure was down to 49%, the enemy’s final push failing to do as much damage as the troops from the first Ssath fleet had managed to inflict. Construction drones, several of which had been kept protected in the bunkers to the south, began to march out and effect repairs, granting Hugh relief from the building pain.

“I think that’s it, sir, maybe a few stragglers we’ll need to mop up, but I think we’ve made it,” Cartwright said, the battered main battle mech he was piloting had lost two of its legs and rested on the ground in front of Hugh’s command post. It’s single, surviving machinegun still scanning for targets. They all waited anxiously for confirmation of their victory.