War Core 3, Chapter 39 + 40.

Chapter 39 is a just a short interlude, so I added chapter 40 to the post today. 

Chapter 39.

“Great Leader Shadax, the last of the traitors are being tracked down, their coup is defeated. It is another great victory for you,” one of Shadax’s personal guards said. Waving him away, Shadax sat on the throne, salivating at the bloodshed around him. He motioned for a servant to bring him the leg of one of the rebels, he was always hungry after a fight, even when the fight was one that nearly ended his reign before it really began.

“These traitors knew far too much and were too well funded for my liking. Make sure the message is sent, their families are to be sacrificed in the feeding pit, down to the last hatchling. Let anyone who contemplates revolt against my leadership know the fate that awaits traitors to the Ssath empire!” Shadax growled. Already his inquisitors would be sweeping up any they even mildly suspected of disloyalty. By the end of the week, his rule would be unassailable, and the last of those that opposed him would be meat for the table.

The attack had been almost perfectly timed, and it was ironically one of his lazy guards looking for a place to sleep that stumbled upon the group of assassins that had snuck their way into the palace, or more likely, were let in by a traitor. With scant warning, the normal detachment of royal guards was outnumbered and before reinforcement could arrive, Shadax was forced to defend himself, tooth and claw against his assailants. A traitor among his royal guard had chosen that moment to strike and only the hidden armor he wore under his ceremonial robes had saved him from a fatal wound.

No slouch in combat, Shadax had ripped out the throat of his traitorous guard, the act of bravery served to rally his nearby servants to join him in his defense of the throne room. Before they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of attackers, reinforcements had arrived, and after a short and bloody fight, they had restored order to the palace. The enemy had planned this attack well, but they had failed, as all who opposed him would.

“Bring me Izkah,” Shadax ordered, summoning the head of his inquisitors. Impatient, Shadax almost ordered his head inquisitor punished for the delay in his appearance, but once he finally showed up, Izkah was wearing bloody and torn armor.

“Great Leader, I apologize for my delay, I was assisting one of my teams in taking down the last of the active resistance,” Izkah said.

“You are here now, that is what counts. Now, report on the status of this little uprising. How did it happen, and how did it happen without you knowing it?” Shadax ordered. His royal guard took the cue that this question was a life or death one and started to close in on the head inquisitor.

“I’m ashamed to say that these rebels were extremely cunning, and I have reason to suspect they were being fed information by someone whose skill eludes even my extensive resources,” Izkah said. Shadax was smart enough to read between the lines, Izkah knew of his attempt to hire the master assassin, Quinless. Should news of Shadax stooping low enough to hire assassins to do his killing leak out, it would be a scandal his regime could not afford after this recent setback.

“There is no fault on your part, then, it appears these rebels, despite their lack of martial skill, were masters of deceit. Is there anything else I should know about them? Have you rooted out the last?” Shadax asked.

“Only one, rather disturbing, piece of news. It appears our insurgents had also recruited several of our cores, and when the coup attempt kicked off, they attempted to take over the fleet invading the human homeworld,” Izkah advised.

“Fools, what benefit would it be to them if they seized control of the fleet, our cores are loyal, at least, the majority of them are,” Shadax ranted.

“They figured that if they destroyed our chance for victory, we would have no choice but to rethink our plans for conquest and force you to abdicate your power. It turns out the pair of cores that turned against us figured the others were going to be swayed to their side. They were, of course, incorrect and have been eliminated. I understand you have access to the ongoing fight, and from what I understand, the damage caused to the fleet by our traitors wasn’t insignificant, but far from enough to alter the course of the campaign against the prey that calls themselves humanity.

“Very good, now, see to your business, and make sure nothing like this happens again,” Shadax ordered. He didn’t like the look on Izkah’s face. The head of his inquisition was becoming too powerful, confident that there was nothing Shadax could do to him until the victory had been won against these humans. With his people excited over the prospect of hunting the prey on their very homeworld, Shadax’s power would be unassailable. There were so many traitors out there, it was vexing that so many would choose to oppose his brilliant leadership. Well, if they would not follow due to affection, they would follow due to fear. That was the way of the Ssath.

Chapter 40.

Time passed as the battle in space unfolded. The human taskforce continued to harass the Ssath fleet, now devoid of any fighter protection. Despite losses to many of their lighter ships, the Ssath point defense remained formidable. The human fighters had to launch their anti-ship missiles from maximum range, limiting their effectiveness and mostly inflicting losses on the destroyers and frigates that formed the Ssath picket line. The battle was moving back toward the Jupiter stations and the growing fleet waiting for the enemy to arrive.

Hugh had figured the Ssath would just blast forward, attempting to destroy the stations quickly, but a few of the minelayer gunboats had diverted to the Jupiter station area and had left strings of mine in the path of the Ssath. Without fighters to screen for the mines, they had to take a more cautious approach and allow the lighter ships to clear the path. The punishment that the light carriers’ fighters were doing to the picket ships further hampered the Ssath efforts. The human fighters were also taking losses, long-range defensive missiles swatted down a good number with each attack.

Before long, the human taskforce was running low on operational fighters and was forced to retreat to the rest of the fleet. Hours stretched out as battle continued, and Hugh was glad that he didn’t feel fatigued anymore. He hit tier four and finally unlocked main battle mechs. His command post added a new wing to the structure that began to produce the powerful M26 Pershing mech.

Each of the victory points was now protected by a full platoon of infantry and a handful of light mechs to bolster their defense. It was also curious to note that each point was taking on a life of its own as the GCA used each point’s original purpose to shape how it developed. Hugh had unlocked various fortifications at each location, and while some seemed rather lackluster, such as the simple walls and automated turrets protecting Randy’s Donuts, others were a bit more extreme. It turned out that their mysterious benefactors among the other races that had a beef with the Ssath, had chosen their favorite victory points to fund an upgrade for. So far it was just the Queen Mary location, but Hugh hoped other aliens would take interest in some of his other victory points and foot the bill for improvements.

An anonymous observer has funded an upgrade for the Queen Mary victory point. Many of the features of this upgrade are hidden until certain conditions are reached during the battle. The upgrades to this victory point will improve as your command post increases its tier.

At the Queen Mary, the ship itself added additional armor, making it look even more like a giant ocean mech. A few gun turrets were constructed on deck, giving Hugh some additional firepower to help defend the point. Around the harbor area, reinforced bunkers to house Hugh’s infantry mechs were also under construction, the firing ports of the bunkers interlocked with the defenses on the ship itself to make the area around that victory point a meatgrinder for any Ssath that might attack it.

Curiosity over what the hidden features were caused a stir among the soldiers in their combat pods, the chatter and betting on what the mystery upgrades were got so bad, that Hugh created a separate comm channel for it, keeping his main comm lines clear. With an upgrade token burning a hole in his pocket, Hugh purchased Rapid Shield Recharge for his main battle mechs. The other upgrades that became available were about what he expected, a rifle upgrade to the second arm of his infantry as well as the option of unlocking mortar teams. Hugh passed on the mortar teams, if he remembered correctly, his assault infantry specialization would unlock an indirect fire weapon for each of his mechs fairly soon, negating the need to spend valuable resources on unlocking and building mortar teams.

Basic automated turrets could now be researched at the command post but given that a similar upgrade had unlocked for his victory points at tier four, Hugh held off on purchasing the command post one, hoping that he would automatically get it once turret upgrades were purchased at all the victory points. It was kind of a buy ten, get one free type of deal the GCA had created, and Hugh wondered if they had grocery stores on their planets since it seemed like the kind of promotion that he remembered seeing all the time when he shopped.

His light mechs were upgraded to the more powerful M3 mech which sported a 37mm plasma cannon to replace the heavy machinegun that his T-7’s had mounted. Hugh queued up all the upgrades he wanted to buy, basically everything except for the mortar teams. His resource balance was at just over three thousand, so it wouldn’t take long to get everything purchased.

The police force had upgraded as well, and their mechs now had additional body armor bolted to the mech’s torso. It wasn’t as good as the armor on his infantry, but it was better than nothing. A melee weapon was also added to their arsenal, a plasma-charged baton. Another ten mechs were produced along with a single patrol car. It was a minor improvement, but anything that Hugh didn’t need to spend resources on was good in his book.

With the completion of the automated factory near the police headquarters, AI-controlled infantry mechs were being steadily produced. Without any hostile threat, they seemed to default to a defensive focus and occupied the trenches and bunkers that now encircled the command post. The factory stopped production after building forty mechs. Hugh had no idea how they would react when the Ssath arrived, but he was kind of hoping they would continue to reinforce the command post. If the mechs trotted out and attacked the first Ssath drop pods to arrive, they wouldn't last long. Behind fortifications, the AI-controlled units would be the most effective.

Back out in space, something unusual was happening, pulling Hugh’s attention from his defensive preparations. The fleet near the Jupiter station suddenly ignited their engines at full power, but instead of charging toward the Ssath, they were retreating on a course that would take them to the solitary station orbiting the moon. Hugh was confused, but a quick check of the Conquest Point totals revealed the reason.

Conquest Points.

Humanity: 6/131.

Ssath: 14/131.

They had delayed the Ssath long enough to win the conquest points from the six Jupiter stations. Hugh watched to see if the Ssath would abort their attack on the stations or would press on to defeat the still undecided stations near the moon and earth itself. The enemy fleet kept on course for the Jupiter stations, picking up their pace and sacrificing a few more ships to the mines in order to make up for the lost time. While the human fleet could have bled the Ssath further if they stayed near the Jupiter stations, by retreating to moon before the Ssath were in sensor range, they could hide their numbers and, hopefully, help to hold that point long enough to swing it into the human column on the conquest point totals.

The Jupiter stations weren’t exactly helpless, and as soon as the Ssath were in range, a massive swarm of fighters launched from them. With a focus on fighters, and expanded bays to support them, each station was now able to launch 1000 fighters, giving them a total of 6000 that was heading toward the Ssath, each fighter loaded down with a pair of anti-ship missiles. Once the fighters entered range of the Ssath sensors, whoever was commanding the fleet pulled the formation in tighter, solidifying their point defense. A handful of Ssath fighters launched to meet the threat, revealing to Hugh that their ships had at least some capacity to rebuild their losses. Unfortunately for the Ssath, only a few dozen fighters moved to intercept the swarm of human ships.

Defensive missiles streamed from the Ssath fleet, the initial waves targeting the fighters, while later waves went after the swarm of missiles that the humans had launched. Fighters were blown to pieces as they made their launches and tried to return to the stations to rearm. A brief dogfight at the edge of defensive missile range occurred, inflicting casualties among the human forces while finally eliminating the last of the Ssath fighter cover. Over fifteen hundred human fighters were destroyed, but the swarm of missiles that the fighters had launched were homing in. Ssath defensive missiles began to score hits by the hundreds, and when the point defense lasers began to fire, the human attack melted away. Still, with that many incoming missiles, they did manage to swamp the enemy point defenses and over a thousand of the weapons hit their targets.

Casualties were focused mostly on the outer edges of the enemy fleet, destroying hundreds of the Ssath lighter ships. Each ship they lost weakened the point defense for the next human attack. The humans lost a lot of fighters, but they could and were building them as fast as their resource supplies allowed. When the fighters were recovered and rearmed, a total of just over four thousand were able to make the second attack. The flight time to the Ssath fleet was shorter on this strike, and Hugh feared they would only get another strike in after this one before the stations were within range of the Ssath missiles.

Like before, the human attack tore into the lighter Ssath ships. The screen of frigates and destroyers melting under the barrage. More hits were scored this time, despite the losses the human fighters had suffered. The strike also hit deeper into the enemy formation, finally landing some hits on the larger cruisers and battleships of the Ssath fleet. The heavier ships could shrug off individual missile hits with their powerful shields and armor, so the damage to them was minimal as only a few were hit with more than one weapon.

A final wave of attacks from the human stations was launched, and the total number of fighters the stations could muster was just under three thousand. This time, with the distance closing between the Ssath and the stations, the human fighters were able to carry four missiles each, doubling their firepower. The massive attack volley was picked apart by the Ssath point defense, but the losses the fleet had suffered were affecting their ability to defend against so many missiles. Thousands of missiles hit, and the outer layer of the Ssath fleet ceased to exist, disappearing under blasts of plasma.

Now within firing range, the Ssath ships began to spew out heavy anti-ship missiles at the six defensive stations. The stations replied with their anti-ship launchers but having placed most of their resources into their fighter fleets, the stations only mounted a half dozen tubes each and their volleys were unlikely to get more than a few weapons through the Ssath point defense. Instead of trying to rearm at the stations, which they could never accomplish before the Ssath missiles struck, the surviving human fighters began to close in on the nearest enemy ships.

Most of the fighters were taken down by the Ssath before they got close, but a few hundred made it into gun range, firing their light cannons at the capital ships. The guns didn’t do much to the heavy Ssath warships, but they weren’t the real threat, just a distraction and a chance to get at least some damage done. Instead of pulling up from their attacks to make a second pass, the surviving fighters dove directly into the Ssath vessel’s turning themselves into human-guided missiles. Hugh was horrified at the loss, considering that the fighters were pod controlled.

“I guess if you know you’re going to be destroyed anyway, might as well try to take the enemy down with you,” Tran offered. Hugh didn’t reply, he knew the officer was correct, but it was hard to stomach.

As expected, the Ssath missile volley pummeled the stations into scrap, receiving only a few hits in return. When the last station was taken offline, the Ssath fleet turned toward the moon, bypassing the neutral world of Mars where the survivors of the Krixnas species lived. The fight over the Jupiter stations had given humanity their first points in this deadly game for survival, but more than that, they had bled the Ssath fleet. Despite the moon station being reinforced by the fleet from the Jupiter stations, it was only one station and hadn’t been able to produce much in the way of its own fleet. Sure, a few more ships would be cranked out before the Ssath made the long journey to reach them, but the enemy still had an overwhelming force on their side compared to what humanity could muster. Hugh grabbed a fnal count of the enemy fleet before the last station had gone down and his view was cut off.

Ssath Order of Battle.

Frigates: 427.

Destroyers: 589.

Cruisers: 696.

Battleships: 733.

Starfighters: 0.