War Core Wednesday. War Core 3, Chapter 24.

Chapter 24.

Hugh thought about the options in front of him, the obvious choice would be Human since he knew what to expect, but going with Ximkas might also be good, they were powerful mechs, even at low tier, and their firepower was impressive. He figured the mech type would also determine the rate of production and mechs that were more powerful individually, would also take longer to produce. When Hugh tried to make his selection the GCA threw him a curveball.

Notice: Selecting a mech type associated with your or allied forces will result in additional survivors should you win this trial. Do you wish to continue with your choice of Ximkas? Y/N.

Hugh hit no, if this was a chance to save more of his men, he wouldn’t waste it. The wording also suggested that since they were allied for this trial, he could also choose Yaelar. Testing the system, he found that he could create a mix of the two. There weren’t any further details over how many he might save, or even how it worked. It would be wrong to cut the Yaelar casualties out of a chance of survival, especially since it looked like humanity was at fault for bringing them into the war in the first place.

You have selected an equal mix of Human and Yaelar mechs, a construction drone is being produced at your command post. Once it is produced, the construction drone will take the fastest route to this structure and begin repairs. At 80% functionality, the Barracks will begin producing units at a reduced capacity until it is fully repaired. Initial forces will be assigned as a defensive garrison. The defensive garrison requirement is 10 mechs per level of the barracks. Current defenders will be upgraded by the construction drone each time the barracks levels. The barracks level is tied to the level of your command post.

“Dalven, take a look a this,” Hugh said, pushing the information on the ruined barracks to the Yaelar. Dalven was silent for a bit, not replying. Hugh couldn’t wait to see what his reaction was, he had to get the Hive of the Widow module installed into the structure that Marthman had found. At least Hugh hoped he could install it there, nothing was confirmed just yet.

“You would do this for my soldiers?” Dalven asked on a private channel.

“Yes, it’s only fair given that my people drug you into this war. I have no idea how many we might save, but whatever happens, we’re in this as equals. You and Burnette will stay and watch over the barracks. I don’t want to leave it unguarded until we get it up and running. Once the defensive garrison troops are built, rejoin the rest of us. If the Ssath push hard, and you can’t stop them, fall back, and we’ll reassess what we want to do,” Hugh said. He was already moving toward Marthman’s position, observing how things were going at the command post as they went.

He was up to thirty-three resources, the fight over the ruined barracks must have helped bump the number up. At least that was enough to replenish some of their ammo. So far, the AI-controlled Ssath mechs were easy enough to destroy, and Marthman’s group had held back on using the Taskmaster mech, instead, they relied on their two rifle-equipped units to hold back the tide. As the level of the enemy mechs increased, ammo expenditure was bound to go up as well. Hopefully, the rate they gathered resources would keep pace with the expenditures. Being out of ammo and forced into melee with Ssath mechs was a sure way to lose the trial and lose it fast.

Hugh was tempted to take a short detour to the Personal Armory and stock up on ammo, but that would delay potentially getting another structure online and producing whatever it was the Hive of the Widow was going to produce. The construction drone heading to the ruined barracks passed Hugh on the way, hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long to get the damaged structure up and running. They could use all the firepower they could get. When he did arrive, Hugh passed his spare ammo module to Sergeant Marthman. His weapon would recharge slowly without it, and even a few extra rounds might allow them to stay in the fight for a bit longer before they needed to send someone back for a supply run.

Marthman had set up a good defensive position, using the natural curve of the canyon to give them some cover. The sergeant knelt and would peek around to fire, while Hillman went prone, allowing them both to engage if they needed to. So far, the Ssath mechs were spread out enough that they could take turns firing. Griggs and his Taskmaster mech were held back, his heavy firepower wasn’t needed yet. Hugh’s command post was now 11% of the way to the next level, so with their short head start, the Ssath was probably close to the first upgrade. When that happened, the pressure on his men would mount.

Trying to overcome his fear of spiders, Hugh pushed open the door to the web-covered storage building that was nestled inside the alcove his men were defending. Hugh almost fired at the hulking figure of another giant spider mech, but it was inactive and badly damaged. Three of its legs were sheared off, and the abdomen was torn open in several places. Scorch-marked holes in the mech’s body showed it had been taken out by a combination of melee and plasma fire. Given the battle had just started, the giant ruined spider was likely just a decoration for the GCA viewers.

A small blinking light on one wall drew Hugh’s attention. A slot, just the right size for the module he was carrying opened at his approach. Hugh slid the Hive of the Widow module into the slot and was rewarded with another message.

Congratulations! You have activated the Hive of the Widow. Badly damaged, the hive will need to be repaired before this structure will reactivate. A repair bot has been generated by the structure, and it should be noted that your construction mechs are incompatible with this structure. Replacement repair bots will be automatically generated as long as the structure isn’t completely destroyed. For activating the Hive of the Widow, you have been granted a boost to your command post’s level upgrade progress as well as an additional 100 resources.

The Hive of Widow is primarily a defensive structure. As it repairs and comes online, automated defenses will attempt to repulse any hostile forces that pass this way. Over time, the Hive will upgrade, improving its units and defenses with each level, as well as expanding its reach. When fully active, the hive may even send out waves of offensive forces to assault the enemy command post. Once it is completely destroyed, the Hive of the Widow cannot be rebuilt.

Current Functionality: 1%.

Hugh watched a small spider drone crawl from the open panel where he had placed the module. It looked around the ruined building and then got to work. Smaller than his construction drones, the repair spider was faster. At first, it moved around the room, taking in the damage and prioritizing where its repairs should begin. Hugh saw it zero in on the ruined giant spider mech which it chose as the spot to begin its work.

“I don’t know how long this building is going to take before it’s useful, so let’s hold back the enemy until it is,” Hugh said, happy to leave the hive and join his other soldiers.

“The Ssath numbers are increasing,” Marthman pointed out. At first, a single Ssath mech would walk down the canyon, with a decent-sized gap between them. Hugh watched as instead of a single Ssath appearing from their side of the canyon, it was a pair of them. Marthman and Hillman took care of the pair, and the next two were single Ssath mechs before again, they were followed by a pair.

“They must have gotten an additional barracks online, like the one we have been repaired. When ours is working, we should see a similar flow of troops,” Hugh said.

“Our units are almost into the fight, we’ll see how they do,” Griggs pointed out. The barracks had produced its defensive garrison, a total of twenty units. Hugh was willing to bet they would see an additional ten mechs join the defenders when the command post leveled up. A string of units, with a gap between them like the gap between the Ssath mechs, had marched from the barracks and were just now passing Hugh and the others.

His mechs marched directly toward the oncoming pair of Ssath. Hugh had Marthman hold his fire so they could get an idea of how their mechs would perform. The mech fired its rifle as soon as it spotted the Ssath and there was a long pause between each shot. Return fire from the Ssath’s smaller caliber weapon was just as inaccurate. So far, they hadn’t even managed to land a hit on Marthman or Hillman the entire time they had been defending this spot.

Instead of halting to improve its aim, and capitalize on its ranged firepower advantage, the AI-controlled mech just blindly marched toward its foes. His unit did manage to land two shots before the Ssath closed into melee range and tore it to shreds. The following mech performed about the same, landing a pair of hits before succumbing to the claws and teeth of the Ssath. Their third mech was able to finish off one of the Ssath, but it was overwhelmed in melee by the survivor. Hugh brought the surviving Ssath mech down with his beam weapon, which cut through it rather nicely.

“It looks like the Ssath will push our forces back without help. Marthman, you stay here with Griggs and hold this spot. Hillman, head back to the command post and load up on ammo for us. Buy all you can with the resources we have, but also pick up a repair module for each of us. Run some of the supplies to Dalven and Burnette before returning here,” Hugh ordered.

“I would like to scout forward and see what’s waiting for us,” Dalven said.

“Go for it, Hillman can leave your supplies near the barracks if you need them. Don’t engage in a difficult fight, but we do need to find out what’s out there,” Hugh replied. Other than the path that led to their territory, the ruined barracks had only a single way out, one that he assumed led toward the Ssath command post. Hugh was fairly comfortable with sending Dalven and Burnette that way since they couldn’t be cut off or flanked. If they found more branching pathways, he would have to halt them until the rest of his structures came online and started producing units.

Your command post has reached Level 1. Do you wish to halt unit production in order to complete upgrades? Y/N.

The bump given to Hugh by the Hive of the Widow reward had let them hit the first level early. Given that the pressure from the Ssath wasn’t too bad just yet, Hugh authorized the upgrade to begin. A final infantry mech marched out of the barracks and then a trio of construction drones left the command post to begin their work. One went to each building and a progress indicator for the upgrade appeared. After a few seconds, the progress jumped by 1%. It looked like every three seconds the progress jumped by a point, so they’d be done in about five minutes. It didn’t seem like that long, but as the battle expanded, it would become trickier to time when to start the upgrades. If Hugh timed it wrong, a Ssath push just might finish them off.

“Sir, we’ve got another ruined barracks and a huge Ssath mech guarding it,” Burnette called in, pushing his feed to Hugh.

They had made some good progress down the canyon, and currently, the private was peeking around a bend in the canyon where they spotted a partially repaired barracks with a Ssath construction drone working away at repairs. Guarding the barracks was a Ssath light mech, one that was supporting significant upgrades.  As Hugh looked at the Ssath, he could feel something, there was a connection that told him this was his opponent, this was the Ssath core.

“It’s the Ssath core,” Hugh advised his team.

“Looks like he’s been hogging all the upgrades,” Hillman said.

“That seems likely. Given what we know of the Ssath, I doubt one of their cores would be keen on passing off any upgrade that might benefit it and help it to survive. It’s probably why the three pod-controlled Ssath we took out weren’t that difficult to beat,” Hugh added.

“Since he’s there by himself, I’m also willing to bet that he’s all alone now,” Marthman said. The Sergeant was right, the Ssath probably had the same opportunities as Hugh, given the GCA’s tendency to make things somewhat fair. If the Ssath didn’t bother with the optional objective from the second trial or took casualties clearing it, he might be all alone now or only have one or two more pod-operated units remaining.

The Ssath core was sporting a light mech chassis, which was more than double the size of a Ssath infantry unit. Where a Ssath light mech usually had a single weapon over one of its shoulders, the core mech had what looked like a heavy-caliber machinegun over each. In addition, it had a mortar mounted on its back to dish out some indirect fire. Hugh wouldn’t know for sure until it got into combat, but the Ssath probably had a maxed-out shield to help protect it.

“Dalven, you and Hillman keep out of sight, I don’t want to tangle with that thing just yet. It’ll take our whole force to have a chance at bringing it down, but we may not have to. It can only be in one place at a time, and if it wants to stay there and guard the barracks, we can push forward here and do some damage,” Hugh said.

He had a Taskmaster mech, two rifle-armed soldiers, and his mech, more than enough to push back the stream of weak AI-controlled Ssath that kept marching blindly toward them. Dalven and Hillman could keep an eye on the Ssath core. So far, Hugh had held off on pushing very aggressively, concerned that the other Ssath would overwhelm them, but it looked like the Ssath core had hogged everything for itself and was on its own. It was time to make it pay for its greed.