War Core, Chapter 50.

Chapter 50.

“Looks like they’re forming up to hit us all along the line, sir,” Captain Tran said. They didn’t have a solid view of most of the enemy, but what they could see showed massive numbers of Ssath moving toward the cleared area around the command post. Hugh was nervous, they all were, this was it, the final battle for him and his soldiers. Tying into the all-comms channels, Hugh addressed his troops.

“They’re coming for us soon, the most dangerous species to be found out there in the black of space. We’re new to this fight, to the GCA’s bizarre way of conquering the universe and I’m sure most of the rest of the galaxy figures we’re already dead. Don’t count us out yet, we’ve held our own this entire fight, despite the Ssath sending all they had at us. It comes down to us, to you in your combat pods and me in this war core. Earth and humanity’s future rests on our shoulders and I know you’re up to the task.

“The Ssath thought they would roll over us, turn Earth into an intergalactic hunting ground and buffet, but they’ve found something other than prey here. They’ve found a foe that does not yield, one that even has a few friends and allies that are willing to risk their own lives to help us. The Krixnas were once our enemies, but now they are fighting at our side. The Yaelar may well hate us, and justifiably so, but still they allowed Dalven to come and join our fight, allowed him to repay what he feels is a debt of honor.

“You are the wall that stands between the Ssath and our world. You are the wall that prevents your loved ones becoming hunting trophies. Stand fast, never has the Army motto rang truer ‘This We’ll Defend!’ They have no idea that what waits for them here isn’t a victory. The only thing that waits for them here, is death. Stand fast, soldiers, stand fast and save our world,” Hugh said. Comms were quiet for a moment, though Hugh could hear that several of the soldiers were talking among themselves on the various squad chats. An unknown NCO barking at a couple of his soldiers for complaining was heard by everyone, the NCO keeping his mic on the open channel and neglecting to connect to just his squad.

“Dammit! Quit your bitching, we’ve got a battle to fight, and I don’t care that we’re outnumbered five to one. All that means is each of you gets to kill five of them. Too easy, privates, this would just be a good fifteen seconds on the range to service five targets. Hell, I’ll take ten since I actually know what the hell I’m doing. If any of you doesn’t get your five kills, I’ll drag you back from the dead just to kill you again myself,” the sergeant growled.

“Everyone.” Hugh said, “You heard the sergeant, everyone get your five and let’s go home,” Hugh said. Laughter broke out as the embarrassed sergeant stammered a bit before cutting off his line.

“Incoming!” Tran shouted, getting everyone’s attention. A trio of shells arced out from the city, homing in on the circle of defenders. The first impacts were off target, nowhere close to any of Hugh’s troops. A second volley was on the mark, landing atop Hugh’s command post. A dull pain throbbed in Hugh’s head as the shells hit, but construction drones were already on the job, repairing the damage before the next volley arrived.

“Are you okay sir?” Cartwright asked.

“Yeah, it’s not too bad, I think that a few of the Ssath medium mechs are artillery variants. The drones can handle repairing that damage, better if it falls on me than on one of the bunkers. Besides, the longer they waste time shelling me, the more units I’ll be able to build,” Hugh said, watching as an infantry mech walked from the command post assembly line. Once a soldier paired with the mech, it ran toward its assigned bunker, ready to fight. A mech also walked from the automated factory, it moved much slower than the combat pod controlled unit, but it also went to its position in line, weapons scanning for targets.

There was no fanfare, no probing attacks, just a solid wave of Ssath pouring from every building and street around the command post. Charging hard to get past the open killing ground. They were met with a wall of fire from the human defenders, rifles, grenades, and machineguns hosed them down, while the light and medium mechs fired their powerful main guns at any of the larger enemy mechs. Able to target with the guns on both sides of the ship, Dalven in his Queen Mary raked the approaching enemy, cutting down swaths of the enemy with each broadside.

The giant ship attracted the attention of just about every Ssath on the battlefield and the already damaged mech staggered under the pummeling. Dalven maneuvered the damaged ship near Hugh’s command post, only losing control and collapsing after he was positioned to block any incoming fire from the east side. Hugh felt some relief as incoming fire from that direction abated.

“I hope you make it Dalven, thank you,” Hugh said over their private channel. He didn’t expect a reply, assuming the Yaelar had already been sent back to wait on the GCA’s horrible calculation to determine if he was a casualty or not.

“It will be fine, Hugh Logan, my pack is not done with this fight. The ship was only a vessel to get us into the fight,” Dalven said. Panels exploded out from the sides of the ship and out of the openings, the werewolf-like Yaelar infantry mechs poured out. Surging forward to engage the nearest Ssath, they tore into the enemy line, drawing Ssath infantry to them like moths to a flame. By the time the last Yaelar mech had jumped down from the ship and joined the fight, Hugh had counted over two hundred of his allies.

The machinegun turrets mounted on his command post were all firing now and not wanting to miss the fight, Hugh took direct control of one. He targeted an infantry mech to the west of him, the side that looked to be having the most trouble holding back the enemy since the Yaelar were all on the other side of the battlefield. A five-round burst hammered out, tearing the Ssath mech to pieces. Hugh shifted his fire, pouring a longer stream of fire at a clump of three Ssath infantry, watching as two of them crumpled under the fire as the third reached the line of bunkers.

An enemy light mech was Hugh’s next target, the enemy slamming its bulk into the rear of the bunker, trying to smash open the access door. Rounds peppered the Ssath mech, its armor resisting at first, but Hugh’s machineguns were .50 caliber weapons, and they didn’t take long to burn through the light armor of the enemy mech. A ten-second burst was enough to smash the light mech to scrap. A group of enemies broke into another bunker covering the west, and with its fall, the path to his command post was open.

A group of twenty Ssath infantry charged toward Hugh’s command post as he desperately tried to swing his gun onto a target. Just before firing, the entire group was bowled over by a swarm of small plasma pellets. One of Hugh’s main battle mechs stomped over, plugging the gap and cutting loose with another of the devastating shotgun-style anti-personnel rounds while its machineguns fired at other threats. Hugh relinquished control of his gun back to the automated systems, wanting to keep from losing focus on the battle at large.

To the east, the Yaelar were actually pushing back the Ssath. Captain Tran rallied half the men in the bunkers on that side and joined in the Yaelar assault, Cartwright adding a pair of light mechs in support. The west was still in trouble, with a bunker fallen, the only thing holding the enemy back was the main battle mech, which was being hammered with incoming fire.

“Sir, I’m sending some help,” Cartwright said. Hugh could see the remaining main battle mechs forming up in a wedge and fighting their way toward him. The bunkers to the north and south were holding so the four light mechs supporting those sides were pulled as well.

“No, take what you have and help the Yaelar break through the enemy lines. Once you’ve done that, roll them up. That’s how we win this. Just give me a light mech and some infantry to hold the gap,” Hugh ordered. It was a risk, but the unexpected Yaelar attack had caught the Ssath off guard and it was a weakness that Hugh was going to exploit.

The main battle mech was frantically trying to shake off the Ssath infantry that had finished clearing the bunker, using the structure as cover to close in on the lone mech.  Hugh shifted all three of his turrets that could come to bear in an effort to support the beleaguered mech. Teeth and claws tore into the main battle mech, finally cutting through the armor on top and allowing an enemy infantry mech to slip inside, destroying the unit from within.

A light mech and a reinforced infantry squad finally arrived, but they too were hard pressed, even with Hugh’s supporting fire, to hold back the attack from the west. Sirens were heard over the sounds of battle and Hugh could see a line of police cruisers charge form their headquarters and into the fight, officer mechs on foot moved to support, firing shotguns and pistols and the attacking Ssath. The police headquarters was already under attack, the Ssath and breached the building and were rooting out the handful of officers left behind to defend the place. Most of their forces were trying to cut their way through to support the vulnerable western flank, but the Ssath were all over them, and the police mechs were no match for actual combat units.

Back to the east, the counterattack was working. The enemy line had broken and the Yaelar, supported by human mech firepower were pushing in on the Ssath flanks, while the Ssath continued to batter themselves against the line of bunkers. Whenever the Ssath turned to engage the Yaelar assault, they opened their flank to the deadly accuracy of the human mechs. They were cutting the enemy apart wholesale, and the Ssath commander was having trouble maintaining unit cohesion as the line disintegrated.

Seeing their attack was failing, the Ssath made a last effort at Hugh’s command post, every enemy mech in the area charged for the gap created by the fallen bunker. The ad hoc forces assembled to plug the gap melted away under the teeth and claws of the Ssath. Incoming fire peppered the walls of the command center, then enemy mechs reached Hugh and began to tear and gouge their way into the walls. The machinegun turrets on the western side of the command post were stripped away and nothing was holding back the enemy.

Pain began to mount and Hugh found it hard to concentrate. Every remaining construction bot began to effect repairs, but the Ssath attackers savaged them, destroying the lot. The construction drones’ sacrifice bought Hugh a few precious seconds and at the rear of the swarm of enemy mechs, he saw some units that looked different. It took Hugh’s pain-addled mind a few seconds to realize that the different-looking mechs were Yaelar, and they were tearing into the rear of the enemy attackers, who were slow to react, given their focus on taking the command center out.

An M24 stepped on a Ssath infantry mech and then cut loose with its main gun, blowing apart the enemy closest to Hugh. Pain then overrode Hugh’s ability to monitor the fight and Hugh waited for the dreaded prompt telling him he had failed. A monumental effort brought up Hugh’s damage monitor and it showed his command post at only 19% functionality. The number ticked down before finally stopping at 6%. Hugh couldn’t tell what was happening, the pain threatening to drive him into madness as the 6% number continued to remain. It dropped to 5%, then stopped for a while before returning to 6%. Minutes passed and the percentage went to 7%, he was being repaired, but it seemed like it was happening at an impossibly slow pace.

At 12% Hugh regained some of his composure, the waves of agony were still there, but he could at least sense everything around him. A few infantry mechs stood watch over a lone construction drone that was working to fix the command post. The fight had drifted from Hugh’s immediate vicinity, but he could still hear intense firing going on. Eventually, a second construction drone walked out of his command post and assisted with repairs. When his command post was repaired to 20%, Hugh was able to resume his view of the entire battlefield.

They had held the enemy, but the losses were substantial. His surviving bunkers, of which there were only four, were manned by a soldier or two in each. Out in the city, he could see a single main battle mech and a light mech supporting some infantry as they cleared Ssath from a nearby building. Other teams were fighting the Ssath deeper in the city, but given the mountains of destroyed enemy units strewn about his command post, the back of the Ssath invasion had been broken.

“We won?” Hugh asked over the command channel.

“Barely, good to have you back sir,” Captain Tran said.

“Thanks, how many Ssath are still out there? We might want to pull what we have back in case they make another push,” Hugh suggested.

“We wanted to keep the pressure on, if we leave them be, they’ll skulk off into the city and we’ll have the devil of a time digging them out. Since we didn’t get a victory notification yet, I’m assuming we need to wipe them out to the last mech to get the win,” Tran said.

“You might be right, and if that’s the case, keep on them. My production is starting back up, so we’ll have replacements before too long. Dalven, how are your Yaelar doing?” Hugh asked.

“He’s gone sir, not long after we lost contact with you, he went offline. The surviving Yaelar mechs reverted to AI control and just attacked the nearest Ssath. About forty of the Yaelar mechs are still operational, but they’re kind of just running through the city looking for Ssath. They lose the fight more often than they win if they do find a Ssath force, but at least they help us keep tabs on where the enemy is.

“Current count of our forces shows us with forty-one infantry, two light mechs, and one main battle mech left,” Tran said. Hugh confirmed the numbers and could feel his internal factory restarting production, at least the infantry production line. The other lines would need the repairs to progress much closer to 100%. Sadly, the construction drones were really slow to rebuild in this fight, given the battle parameters, but he could see that one was about a third of the way down the line and would be finished before too long. At least Hugh could direct them once they were built.

“Any idea on how many Ssath are left?” Hugh asked.

“Only infantry were left when they finally broke, about a hundred I would estimate. We’ve taken down eight or ten since then, we’ve taken it slow after the Yaelar reverted to AI control and couldn’t support us directly,” Tran said.

“They really saved the day for us, didn’t they?” Hugh asked.

“Yes, I think they paid back whatever debt they thought they owed you and more. Hopefully, we can return the favor someday,” Tran said.

“I agree. For now, I’m going to rebuild some forces here and after my command post is up to full functionality, we’ll get the bunkers back in business. With that giant ship over there,” Hugh said, indicating the remains of the Queen Mary, “we should have more than enough resources for the time being. It’ll be slow going until all the construction drones rebuilt,” Hugh said.

“The men are wondering how we’re doing on the scoreboard sir; can you check for us?” Tran asked.

“Absolutely, I’m as curious as you are, just give me a minute, the pain makes this a little tougher to manage than usual,” Hugh said. The drones had him up to 28% now, and he was feeling better with every minute that passed.

Conquest Points.

Humanity: 61/137.

Ssath: 62/137.

“Not much change,” Tran noted.

“Yeah, but which of our cores are still actively fighting? And what about the Krixnas, are they still in the fight?” Tran asked. Hugh shifted his view to space, noting that all six stations were operational. The Ssath must have blown through the small Krixnas fleet that had moved to intercept them, but more ships were being built and taking up positions to protect the stations. It was going to take the Ssath some time to reach the stations and even more to fight them and return to continue the invasion. Hugh couldn't get an exact count of the Ssath fleet, they were too far from any sensors. Checking the data from the battle with the first group of Krixnas ships gave him a clue that while the enemy had suffered losses, at least two hundred capital ships were still operational.