War Core 3, Chapter 44.

Chapter 44.

Hugh watched as another infantry mech was constructed at his command post, the soldier now operating the mech moved it to a bunker near the command post. The string of bunkers defending him should have been occupied by a pair of infantry squads, but instead, they only had one or two mechs in each. It had been a gamble to send out the defenders to stop the Ssath at the drop sites, and it turned out to be a bad bet as the orbital bombardments ripped his forces to shreds. He had ordered the survivors of the bombardment to return and help defend the command post, but so far, only a pair of infantry mechs had shown up. The others were swarmed and destroyed by the Ssath emerging from the nearby drop pods.

To make matters worse, the AI-Controlled infantry from his automated factory all stood from the prepared defenses and started marching toward the nearest enemy force. Hugh couldn’t command them directly, and it seemed their programming was even more simple than he had feared, they were going to just walk toward the nearest enemy and engage them. There were sixty of the AI-controlled infantry, but once they left the protected area around the command post, great spears of light fell from the sky as the Ssath expended another orbital bombardment to eliminate them from the fight.

The Ssath Empire has 6 bombardments remaining for this battle.

“Better to have that fall on the AI units than our boys,” Tran offered.

“Agreed, I’d be perfectly happy to let the Ssath waste their ammo on the AI units, but they could have been much more useful defending from inside the bunkers rather than eating up Ssath ammo,” Hugh said. Tran was helping to organize the units defending the bunkers, but his task was a difficult one. The Ssath were landing in the city, all around the command post, and he couldn’t afford to strip some bunkers to reinforce others, since the threat on each side was nearly equal.

About the only place the Ssath weren’t as thick was where a surviving main battle mech, a handful of infantry, and a police cruiser had stopped a drop pod full of enemies. They now knew each drop pod had carried fifty Ssath infantry. There weren’t any of the heavier enemy mechs, but the sheer number of infantry mechs they were dropping just might be sufficient to overrun them. Fifteen drop pods had landed in the city just outside the command post protected area, which gave him over seven hundred Ssath infantry to deal with. A further twenty pods had landed around each victory point, but so far, each victory point was holding its own against the assault.

“Sir, the largest concentration is coming down 1st Street. That might be a good spot for your beacon,” Tran suggested. He was right, over two hundred Ssath were charging down 1st street and would be the first to arrive at the command post. Activating the Drop Beacon of the Vanquished, Hugh timed it to strike directly in the middle of the enemy force. By this time, Hugh had enough practice and could land the drop pod almost exactly where he wanted it. Being a GCA granted ability, the drop pod that Hugh summoned wasn’t on the sensors of the enemy fleet orbiting earth. That had been one of his fears, that the pod would just be swatted from the sky before it could accomplish anything.

The impact crushed a score of Ssath infantry and caused the rest to stumble as the ground heaved and nearby buildings collapsed. Before they could regain their footing, the doors of the drop pod blasted off and Hugh’s summoned forces joined the defense. To everyone’s surprise, it appeared that the randomly defeated enemy selected by the GCA for this fight was Ssath. Confusion reigned as the Ssath tried to tell friend from foe as Hugh’s summoned troops tore into the enemy. The Ssath got over their confusion quickly enough, their mechs had the ability to identify friends or foes, just like Hugh’s units did, but seeing what looked like allies tear into your forces had caused enough hesitation to allow Hugh’s units to get some early kills in.

Hugh’s Drop Beacon of the Vanquished force was badly outnumbered and wasn’t going to last long, but they had done their job, slowing over two hundred enemy mechs and inflicting a good number of casualties. In slowing the largest enemy group, he no longer had to deal with their entire force hitting his lines at the same time. Every second Hugh could gain meant more time for mechs to be produced and join his defenders.

Looking inside his command post, Hugh could see that another infantry and a light mech might be finished before the first Ssath arrived, but that was it. The automated factory was also producing units to replace the AI-controlled units lost in the latest bombardment. Hugh needed to do something to slow the Ssath, and about the only thing left in his arsenal was the avatar infantry mech he had received on Harmony Station as a reward from the last campaign. He didn’t know much about the avatar, other than it was supposed to be an advanced and powerful mech that couldn’t be repaired in the field. Hugh activated the avatar reward and his view blacked out until a system prompt appeared.

You have activated the Single-Use Advanced Infantry Mech, Avatar Class. This mech is rated at tier 10+ and is too complex for your construction drones to repair. While operating the avatar, you will still be able to perform your other core functions using the interface provided. Should your avatar be destroyed, you will be returned to your war core with a slight delay before being able to connect to your command post.

Hugh could see the avatar being built at a rapid pace inside the command post. It was only slightly larger than his assault infantry mechs, but it lacked the bulky feel those units had, going with a quality over quantity choice for its armor scheme. The alloys that the armor was made from were denser and more heat resistant than any he had encountered so far. In addition, the mech had several micro-shielding units scattered over the chassis, giving him the same shielding as a heavy mech. Bipedal, the avatar sported four arms, each of which mounted a weapon. The two lower arms had dual-barreled assault rifles, while one of the upper arms featured a shotgun, and the final arm was a beam weapon. A grenade launcher was mounted on one shoulder while the other shoulder sported a single-use, anti-armor rocket.

With a jolt, Hugh felt himself connect to the avatar, finding it was incredibly easy to pilot, and maneuvering it outside the command post was as natural as walking out the front door had been in his flesh and blood body. Overlays for targeting his weapons appeared and he could also access a view of the entire battlefield as if he was still installed in the command post. There wasn’t much time to practice with the weapons, the Ssath were already engaging the automated turrets, and rifle fire from the bunkers began to reach out toward the approaching Ssath.

A quick scan of the battlefield showed the largest concentration of Ssath was headed in from the east, and he jumped into one of the bunkers defending that side of the command post. The soldier’s inside were shocked at his appearance, but their targeting interface showed that it was Hugh, not some new Ssath mech that was attacking them. Returning to the firing ports, the soldiers tried to stem the enemy's advance, but there were only two of them in a bunker that could support twenty. Hugh selected targets in an instant and assigned the various Ssath mechs to his different weapons systems before firing.

The beam from one arm burned through three Ssath infantry while each of the rifle arms fired bursts into another pair of Ssath. Hugh also dropped a string of grenades across the largest concentrations of enemy infantry, as well as on top of those that were seeking cover behind any rubble. His targeting systems were incredible, after finishing one enemy off, they automatically sought out the next target, dropping it as well. After only fifteen seconds, Hugh had blunted the attack in this sector, personally downing nearly sixty enemy mechs.

Incoming fire had been light, the Ssath infantry wasn’t known for their ranged abilities, but they didn’t have to be good at long-distance sniping given how fast they could cover ground. All around the command post, the bunkers were being assaulted, the weakly defended line overrun by the raptor-like Ssath infantry. Leaving the two soldiers to continue to hold the bunker, Hugh exited and began to sprint toward the south, clearing the Ssath as he went. His weapons were constantly firing and not for the first time, Hugh was thankful that the weapons for this campaign operated off the mech’s power supply and couldn’t run out of ammo.

His grenades were a different story, the magazine held fifty of them, and the last few were already launching out toward the largest concentration of Ssath. A prompt appeared telling him the mech would slowly replenish them over time, but Hugh didn’t get the feeling this avatar would be around long enough for it to make a difference. The Ssath were homing in on him directly, the call going out that this was the war core’s avatar. They must have thought that if they killed his mech, the battle would be over, but given the GCA description of the reward, killing his avatar would only mean a momentary delay while he reconnected to the command post.

Incoming Ssath fire started to score hits, and the various shield power levels began to drop. Sprinting to the next bunker in his defensive line, Hugh made it inside before any of the shield units were completely depleted. Incoming fire peppered the outside of the bunker, concentrating on the firing ports. Almost as soon as the door to the bunker sealed behind him, Hugh could hear Ssath clawing and biting at it. It would take them an hour to claw their way through the bunker itself, but the door, despite being a thick metal affair, was the weak point. Stepping to the nearest firing port, Hugh’s weapons began to drop Ssath infantry at an astounding pace.

In return, he was taking more and more damage from the few shots that managed to find their way through the firing port. The two other infantry mechs inside the bunker were also firing, and between the three of them, the Ssath were held back. But their kills were also starting to block their field of view and the destroyed mechs piled up in front of the bunker. The enemy was now swarming all over the bunker, seeking a way in

With a crash, the door to the bunker gave way and the Ssath outside started to pour in. Hugh overrode the safety warnings and fired the anti-armor rocket on his shoulder. The rocket flew past the first few enemy infantry, then impacted the ground just outside the bunker. Hugh was thrown from his feet by the force of the blast, and a ball of plasma fire engulfed the enemy in the doorway.

Hugh’s shields were dropped by the blast, and he could feel a burning pain as the edge of the flame washed over his avatar. Stumbling to his feet, Hugh had only a few seconds before the Ssath outside the blast area renewed their assault on the bunker. His beam weapon was damaged by the blast, as well as one of the assault rifles. The remaining rifle along with the shotgun was doing just fine on their own, hammering down Ssath after Ssath. Further in the bunker, the other two infantry mechs were still in the fight, pouring fire into the enemy.

The assault continued, with only short reprieves when the debris from all the destroyed mechs clogged the doorway, forcing the Ssath to waste time and mechs clearing it out. Not everything was going Hugh’s way, though, and each wave of Ssath was getting closer and closer to his avatar. Damage mounted from an almost constant barrage of incoming fire. The Ssath ranged weapons for their infantry mechs might only be pistol caliber, but each hit burned more of Hugh’s armor away.

One Ssath finally got close enough to hook a claw into Hugh’s avatar, dragging it to the ground. He continued to fight, but his avatar was being taken apart by the Ssath claws and teeth. His weapons were stripped away, and the last thing he saw was the open mouth of a Ssath mech descending toward his face. Gunfire in the background told Hugh the pair of soldiers inside the bunker with him were putting up a fight, but the avatar was down.

Your avatar has been destroyed. Connection to the command post will be re-established in 60 seconds.